Robin Hood:Out cast
by emzigale07
Summary: Next book in my Robin Hood serise do not read if you havent already read Robin Hood: sell out Robin thinks her life cant get anymore complicated, she hasnt seen the half of it yet.
1. Masqurades

Robin Hood: Outcast

Robin Hood: Outcast

By Emily Nightingale

Chapter one

Baxter Mansion

We drove up the posh brick drive way that lead to the mansion in complete silence, all of us contemplating the task ahead. Delicate lanterns lit the way, the soft light illuminating the grounds, an orchestra played, elegant, tasteful, and welcoming, with the soft trickle of the fountain as its backing. The black limousine pulled up in front of Baxter's white marble stairs and the driver left to open our door.

"This is it." I said to the others as the door was opened, this was make or break.

I stepped out of the limousine tidily holding the skirt of my dress in one hand and took in the scene, despite all Baxter's welcoming efforts the house still looked ominous and foreboding. The light from the lanterns cast eerie shadows on the mansions walls creating a strange ghostly effect giving me the shivers, none of the other guests seemed to notice this though. The others joined me at the foot of the stairs and we headed up to the bouncer.

"Names?" He asked, no one got into one of Baxter's party's without being on the guest list.

"Robin Locksley." I said "John Little, William Scarlet, Dee Jack and Mathew Much."

The bouncer checked the list and ticked us off, it always helps, when gate crashing a party, to have a man on the inside to slip your 'names' on the list. Well we weren't exactly going to give them our real names were we? Should anything go wrong we didn't want a repeat of what happened to Wendy.

"Welcome to Mr Baxter's summer masquerade ball, enjoy." Said the bouncer changing his tone.

The grand oak doors opened into Baxter's magnificent entrance hall, crowded with wealthy business men and their trophy wives making polite chatter, each nursing a glass of champagne and silently asking 'why?'

I motioned for the others to follow me, it was vital we didn't mess this up, it was far too dangerous. The summer masquerade ball was Baxter's larges and most popular social gathering, anyone who was anyone in the upper class of Locksdale and the surrounding towns attended it yearly, making it the perfect place for a spot of pick pocketing. Actually it was much more than that, every year, once a year, on this very night Robert Baxter presented his most prized possession to his well to do friends, his diamond encrusted solid gold Baxter goblet, bearing the family crest, a pick and pen cross in front of a large letter B, this was supposed to represent the unity between the Baxter's and the working class miners that made his family's fortune, ha! That wasn't all they gave them, the goblet was commissioned by Baxter's great granddad and paid for through tax by the people of Locksdale, the way we saw it we were just returning that money to the community.

The masquerade ball was a perfect cover, and not only because we blended in perfectly with out masks, it ment no sneaking or running we could simply walk in to the biggest social event on the Locksdale calendar and leave with the goblet, providing we didn't get caught. Which brings me back to how this was extremely dangerous, security was tighter than it had ever been, Baxter was taking no chances and the last thing he needed was all of us getting in here and making off with the goblet. After his humiliating defeat two weeks ago Baxter was keen to redeem himself in the eyes of the haves, and to make sure the have not's didn't get it in their heads that he was soft. We walked past yet another security guard and entered the grand hall.

Beautifully decorated in white and gold the hall was a sight to be held, a grand white piano played in the corner and the dance floor was filled with gliding couples. Across the room I spotted George, he smiled at us and made his way over, dressed in a formal back suit and tie he looked very James Bond (as did Will, John and Mark).

"Hi." He said, his blue eyes twinkling behind his black masquerade mask.

"Hi" I replied feeling my cheeks glow, perfect.

"Guys" said Jack, who looked stunning in an emerald green floor length dress; addressing the others "aren't we ment to be over there now?" she widening her eyes meaningfully.

"No." replied John.

"I think we are" she said frowning at the others, I saw what she was trying to do. "Remember that thing we have to do!"

"Oh" said Will cottoning on; I shook my head at them, 'please don't leave me!'

Mark nodded grinning but John still looked bewildered. Will elbowed him and looked from me to George.

"Oh yeah, best be off." Said John getting what Jack ment, at long last.

They walked off and left me standing there with George, completely embarrassed. Jack winked at me as she walked past, I knew she ment well but this wasn't helping, my relationship with George hadn't really taken off over the past few weeks, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

"What thing do they have to do over there?" asked George smiling. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the buffet and picked up a gold rimmed glass of champagne, posh.

"You got in ok then?" George said, making polite conversation and leaning on the buffet table to look at me.

"Of course." I said, great awkward conversation.

"You look beautiful." Said George softly gazing at me, I was so taken aback by the sudden complement I didn't know what to say, fortunately (or unfortunately depending on where your stood) I didn't have to, I tall, thin, stunning blond strut over towards us, well George.

"Hello George." She said tartly, well a man might call it confidently but it was tartly.

"Grace, nice to see you again, I didn't know you were going to be here." He greeted.

"Your dad sent me an invertation, and I wouldn't miss it for the world." She said smiling beautifully taking a step towards him. She wore a cleavage bearing bright pink dress with a matching mask, her blond curls sprayed in place on top of her head along with a silver tiara.

George stood for a moment or two, taking all this in, I coughed reminding him I was still here, men.

"Oh, Grace this is Robin a good friend of mine, Robin this is Grace." He said introducing us, I plastered on a fake smile and said.

"Nice to meet you."

"Im sure it is, im Grace Gisborne of the Nottingham Gisborne's?" she said pompously making it sound like a question.

"Yeah, im Robin, err just Robin." I said unsure how she wanted me to respond.

At my words a big satisfied grin spread across her face, contented with the knowledge she I wasn't a threat, she was obviously far higher up the social ladder than I was.

"So George….." she started and if im going to be honest I zoned out there and then, nothing she said was of any interest to me and I doubt George found it all that fascinating ether. But ever the gentleman he listened while she rattled on about shopping, her friend and her daddy's business.

After fifteen minuets of this stimulating conversation she had to go and powder her nose.

"Anyway it was really nice talking to you again" she said looking him in the eyes "we should do it again some time."

And as soon as she was out of ear shot I said.

"Finally!" I couldn't help myself.

George laughed at me, desperate for him not to get the wrong idea I said.

"Well, have you ever met a more boring narcissistic person? Me, me, me, me."

"You were calling me that two months ago, remember?" He said getting himself a glass.

"Yeah well it's true, I didn't think she'd ever shut up!" I said.

"She's not that bad." He said.

"Yeah and a man eating temptress likes you for your personality." I said how come guys could never see past the pretty faces?

He just laughed at me and suggested that we go stand over by the windows, away from the hungry business men surrounding the buffet table.

"I mean she obviously fancy's you, why else would any self respecting woman wear a dress like that?" I said, going on a little rant.

"You know if I didn't know any better I'd say you were jealous Robin." He said taunting me.

Jealous? Jealous! Whatever gave you that impression? I just spent the last fifteen minuets staring daggers at her, but of course im not jealous. That was what I was thinking, but I wasn't about to say that out loud, instead what I said was.

"Keep on dreaming." He smiled at me and went on to talk about business.

"Everything going according to plan then?" he asked, adopting a look of seriousness.

"Everything's fine, the masquerade cover is working like a charm, the only issue is keeping a low profile and not being found out, its really hard to hide Southside manners." I said voicing my concerns that just one slip up could land us all thrown out or worse, in the hands of Baxter.

"Yeah I don't know many upper class business men too keen to talk about things like football." Said George.

"John, Mark and Will better keep their mouths shut then, and Jack come to think of it." I said smiling.

"It'll be alright" he said taking a sip of champagne "You thought of everything."

He ment it as a complement, but it only made me remember how hard I'd been on the others leading up to tonight, but I just couldn't risk it, I didn't want anyone else being put in danger.

"I just hope its enough." I said playing with my glass.

"You need to calm down" Said George shaking his head at me "stress will be the death of you if you don't give it up you know?"

Yeah like that was going to happen, I nearly cost my whole family their lives two week ago, all because I didn't think they were in danger.

"It's not your fault you know" said George as if reading my mind "your family."

"Hum." I mumbled in reply looking away.

George stood beside me placed a hand softly on my shoulder, I turned my head and looked into his eyes, and he stared back at me and opened his mouth to speak when, a waiter carrying a plate of food appeared and interrupted.

He offered forward the tray and George shuck his head.

"No thank you." I said politely and turned back to George, he had removed his hand and was now looking in the opposite direction, great, whatever George was about to say forgotten.

Sensing nothing more was going to be said I looked for the others, I spotted them over by the piano talking and holding sheets of paper, what were they up to? I tried to catch someone's eye; with no luck I took out my phone about to text, this wasn't important enough to use the ear pieces. The song ended the couples on the dance floor came to a stop and waited for the next song. When the music stared up again I jumped a mile, the opening notes of Brian Adams Everything I do.

I looked up at the others still stood over by the piano, they all gave me thumbs up and smiles and I shuck my head, no, no! They had joked about it earlier, how it would be the perfect song to play at mine and George's wedding (like that was ever going to happen!) such rotten sods!

I looked around, nearly everyone in the room was on the dance floor waltzing, someone tapped on my back and I turned round to see George standing there holding out his hand.

"Shall we?" He asked with a smile, oh the others were so going to pay for this.

I smiled awkwardly and took his hand.

"I really can't dance you know." I said as we stepped onto the dance floor.

But George just laughed and put me into the waltz position, this could not end well. As we danced I watched my feet, unsure where to step I followed George and hoped for the best. A little into the song I found the courage to look up, a massive smile spread across my face as I saw George singing along to the song.

"Anything interesting down there?" He asked with a grin, I shuck my head at him at his attempt at a joke.

As our confidence grew the dancing just came naturally, showing off George spun me round and soon we were laughing and joking in the middle of the dance floor. A few prim couples stared at us disapprovingly, but we didn't pay attention to them, lost in our own world everything seemed to fade away to us, it was like a dream, like none of this was real. The song began to end and our movements slowed, stopping in time with the music I found myself looking up, once again, into George's mesmerizing blue eyes. He looked down into my eyes and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could tell me what he wanted to say a voice echoed through the hall, such a familiar, potent voice it caused us to spring apart.

"Welcome guests!" said Robert Baxter from a small stage to the front of the hall "I hope that you are all enjoying yourselves, and im sorry to interrupt your dancing but it is time for the ceremonial drinking of the goblet."

What?! That wasn't supposed to happen yet. I looked at George his face mirrored my own; he wasn't keeping to the schedule. We slipped to the back of the room away from anyone who might over hear.

"Guys! Baxter's starting early." I whispered into my earpiece.

"Way ahead of you" answered Will.

"Don't worry" said Mark "we saw them bringing the goblet in and figured he was starting early, everyone's at their posts."

"Ok so you're at the mains now?" I asked him.

"Yes." He replied.

"And John you're to the side of the doors?" I asked.

"Yeah." John replied.

"Jack your by the doors as well?" I asked her.

"Yes." She replied.

"And Will you're…" I started but Will interrupted.

"By the stage, we know, calm down Robin everything's fine." He said bored.

"I best get to the front." Said George, the others agreed and he set off.

I worked my way towards the front of the crowd to the other side of the stage to George and listened.

"….. But of course we are all aware of that. And with out further ado" he said taking the jug of wine from the table on stage and pored it into the goblet "please raise your glasses in a toast."

Every one took a glass from the waiters working the crowd; I held mine tightly and waited.

"To the prosperity of Locksdale!" He proclaimed.

"Prosperity!" the crowd mimicked and suddenly the lights went out.

There were a few murmurs from the crowd but strangely none from the stage, I thought nothing of it and assumed it was Will getting a head start on his job which was gagging Baxter. I hoped onto the stage and felt for the goblet Baxter put down when the lights went off, using my modified masquerade mask, night vision goggles, I found it in no time. I reached out for the goblet, wanting to be quick so we could get out of here, when a hand reached out and grabbed mine, still holding the goblet I struggled for freedom. The lights flicked back on revealing my captor to be Baxter, well that didn't work.


	2. Questions

Chapter two

Chapter two

A collective gasp echoed from the crowd, as I stood there with Baxter's hand around my wrist all I could think was, perfect, here's another fine mess you've got yourself into Robin. Over the murmuring of the crowd I heard struggling at the back of the hall; four muscular men were dragging the other four onto the stage as George looked on in horror.

"What do we have here?" asked Baxter twisting me so her could look me in the eyes "I thought Robin Hood was ment to give to the poor not steal from them."

I couldn't speak, what was going on here? I just looked at him blankly as the others were roughly pushed next to me.

"As you know very well Hood this cup is due to be melted down after tonight's celebrations, and the money raised from this given to the poor of Locksdale." The chose his every word with care and spoke them deliberately and purposefully, never taking his eyes off me even though he was addressing the crowd as well "that's a little vindictive don't you think?"

I looked from Baxter to the others and then to George, what was he talking about?

"You…" was all I managed to say before a fifth guard appeared and gagged me with one hand and restrained me with the other, I found George in the crowd of shocked spectators, he stood helplessly watching as his farther clicked his fingers and said.

"Take them away."

Somehow I didn't think so. As the muscular, meat headed guards tried to drag us from the room I caught the others attention, we had to get out of here. I dispersed all my weight downwards and dug my heels into the floor causing the guard to stop; taking the opportunity I stomped down hard on his toes as he yelled out in pain he slackened his grip on my mouth and his arm slipped down to my neck, I then turned my head to the side and then swung it backwards head butting the guard and causing him to scream out and release me. Self defence classes really do work you know.

I made a brake for freedom, knocking back the guard, keen to get dome distance between us. The others broke free from there captors and pandemonium erupted as the guards got up to fight, screaming guests ran from the hall, posh have's don't react well to fighting.

I looked from the others to the guards and back again, they were all thinking the same thing I was.

"Run!" I shouted, and needless to say we legged it.

I skidded across the hall in my heels and found the door blocked by more of Baxter's muscled thugs. Back at the other end of the hall George couldn't watch any longer.

"Farther" he shouted removing his tie and unfastening his top three buttons "I'll go help." He ran towards us dodging anxious guests.

I knew we had to do something, and fast, but with seven bodybuilder/guards in our way that wasn't going to be easy, not to mention a very humiliated Baxter, keen not to let us slip through his fingers again.

George skidded to a halt next to the guards blocking the exit, catching my eye he motioned to the right, following this I noticed a servants door, slyly I pointed this out to the others and we made a brake for it just as the guards began to close in around us. The others made it quickly through the door but because I was a little behind a guard got there before me and shut it, now I was surrounded.

George watched from outside the circle of thugs, I saw only one way out, not wanting to find out what would happen if I stayed instinctively I took at a run, and slid under the legs of a guard. Quickly I got to my feet and sprinted into the entrance hall, behind me I could hear the shouting of the guards, the muttering of the guests and the yelling of Baxter. Dodging waiters bearing trays of champagne and finger food, I made it to the main doors and freedom, running down the front steps, glad of the split in my mum's dress. The others were waiting in the limo (which conveniently 'lost' both its number plates for tonight) Joe jumped out of the front seat and grabbed the door for me, (also its useful if your friends have uncles with limo company's).

"Get a move on Robin." Urged Joe, the guards, Baxter, George and the crowd were running into the hall.

Jumping into limo I heaved a huge sigh of relief, well that went well.

"Drive!" shouted Will.

"I am I am, calm down man im going." Retorted Joe.

As we set of I looked behind me and watched out of the back window, the thugs were attempting to chase us down the drive but were much too slow, the crowd of guests watched from the doorway all secretly interested in what was going on, Baxter stood at the top of the steps hands in fists and his face the very picture of fury, we'd gotten away from him again, and George stood at the foot of the steps bathed in the golden lantern light smiling softly to himself, and who knew what was going on in his head.

Making good distance down Baxter's private road we reflected on the disaster of our mission.

"How come every mission I go on with you ends in disaster?" Joe asked from the front.

"Your bad luck." I replied causing the others to laugh, Joe didn't appreciate it much though.

"I could just make you get out you know." He replied "im sure Baxter's goons can give you a lift home."

"I don't think your Jess would be very happy if you did." Said Mark.

"Good point." Said Joe thinking of his spirited sister.

"What happened back there?" asked Jack voicing all of our thoughts.

"I know, why did he suddenly change his schedule?" asked John.

"I don't know, but we need to find out." I said to both questions.

The whole thing had been a mystery, none of that should have happened, we had everything worked out. And what worried me the most was it looked scarily like he knew.

Author notes: short chapter I know, but I needed to end the whole scene with the ball, let me know what you think. xx


	3. Bus stop

Chapter three

Chapter three

Baxter mansion

Robert Baxter stormed back into his mansion enraged; he could not believe they had gotten in again, more to the point he could not believe they had gotten in to start with. His other guests back in the grand hall he walked into a side and rounded on his supposed tough team of guards.

"What was that?!" he demanded furious "a group of six year old girls could have done a better job than that!"

The guards flinched at his words; you did yourself no favours if you disappointed Robert Baxter.

"What do I pay you for? You made me look like a fool out there!" he paced the room, something needed to be done "tell me how they got in."

When is words were greeted by silence Robert Baxter stopped pacing.

"If someone doesn't tell me how Hood and his lot got in here this second heads and careers will roll!" he warned.

One lone guard stepped forward, he had manned the door that night, he handed his boss the guest list.

The howl Robert Baxter let out sent his guards into panic, he was really annoyed.

"Robin Locksley, John Little, William Scarlet, Dee Jack and Matthew Much! You idiots! You just let them straight on in, nothing clicked in your heads? You never thought that maybe something was wrong here?!" He shouted waving the list "No of course you didn't because you're all imbeciles'!"

The toughest guards in the whole town reduced to quivering puddles at the hands of Robert Baxter, and that was just how he liked it, nothing got his point across like fear. He stopped and though for a moment, tonight hadn't been a complete disaster, he had got the ball rolling on his latest scheme at least.

"You're lucky this little set back works to my advantage" he said addressing the guards "your mistake is eclipsed by what I achieved last night. Lets see little miss popularity Robin Hood work her way out of this one." He grinned speaking to himself by the last sentence. So thrilled by the prospect of his plan Robert Baxter never noticed his son George hiding in the shadows listening to every word.

Monday morning

Hudson Farm

I can't believe how tired I am! I had to practically heave myself out of bed that morning; it all seemed like too much of a chore and I was in for a busy day. I yawned and sighed my way through my morning routine pausing to examine a new burse on my arm from Baxter's brutish hench men. Something that was that big of a disaster was bound to take its toll I suppose. As I stepped out of the house and into the bright sun light I flinched, too bright. Dressed down in three quarter blue Jeans a white strappy top and dainty white pumps I headed up the lane to the bus stop, the only mode of transport I had.

When the bus arrived I stepped on relived to find seats available, on Monday morning's the bus was always full. I paid my fair and chose my seat from the two available, one next to a forty year old gangster with greased back hair and fists full of rings who looked a little too eager for me to sit next to him, and the other next to a sweet looking old woman with shopping bags at her feet, not exactly a hard decision. She smiled at me as I sat down and a wave of tranquillity washed over me as I sat there the summer sun coming through the window and the soft chatter of other passages behind me, another normal Locksdale day. I closed my eyes taking in the peace and hoping to catch five minuets sleep before I got to the office, when the bell sounded and bus stopped movement ahead of me told me the couple in the seat in front of me were getting off the bus. Familiar male voice issued came from the front of the bus; I opened half an eye and nearly fell of my seat. What was he doing here?

Adam spotted me and walked towards the empty seat before me, I folded my arms and shot him a warning glance, he'd better keep away from me. He blatantly ignored my murderous glare and sat down in front of me.

"Hi Robin." He said turning round to talk to me, when all I did was look at him angrily he laughed "something's never change."

"You said it not me." I snapped at my cheating ex turning my head in the opposite direction.

He shook his head at me and turned to the man sat at the other end of the aisle and said "My old bird." As if it was some sort of explanation as to my behaviour, like I was in the wrong. I hated that expression, bird?

I glared at him and bit my lip, don't rise to it.

"So how's things?" he asked his green eyes glistening mischievously.

Ignore him, I told myself, don't react, pretend he's not there.

He sighed and shook his head.

"Robin, why you gotta be like that?" he asked and the man at the other end of the aisle nodded in agreement "Why can't just drop it and get on with your life?"

The man in the aisle nodded again and said something to his friend about women having issues, that's it! I can't take this, what on earth did I ever see in this guy?! I was just about to give Adam a piece of my mind, and my fist if he carried on like this, when the bus stopped again. My heart started beating so wildly in my chest I was sure Adam could hear it, a strange sensation was fluttering in the pit of my stomach, it was almost as if I had just gone over the biggest drop in Blackpool pleasure beach. I hadn't realised we were at his stop yet, oh great this should be interesting.

George Baxter strode down the bus; spotting me he smiled and took the seat next to Adam. Watching my reaction to both lads the old woman next to me took my hand and said.

"Good luck dear."

"Hi Robin." George grinned turning round to look at me.

"Hi George." I replied blushing slightly.

"The others already there?" He asked, we had already past Will's, Jack's, Mark's and John's stops.

"Yeah" I said "Mark had something to show them."

George grinned in response, he knew how his friend liked to invent. I watched nervously as Adam put two and two together and came up with five as I knew he would.

"Oh I see." Said Adam and George looked at him confused.

Both guys turned to face the front, George pondering the day ahead, Adam thinking how best to word his frustration. It was a weird feeling watching them both sat together in front of me, one with blond hair the other with brown, one with crystal blue eyes the other with sea green, one an outlaw the other a cheat.

"Well this explains a lot." Said Adam spinning back round.

"You what?" I asked although I could see where this was going.

"Why you won't speak to me, why you're in such a mood" he said staring me in the eye "you didn't want me to find out about him!" he pointed at George causing him to turn round in confusion.

"Adam shut up will you? You don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about!" I snapped.

"Alright, whatever" he said "I can understand you not wanting to tell me you have a new boyfriend, especially one that could never live up to me!" he said looking George up and down.

"Excuse me?" asked George confused as to what this strange guy was on about.

"Adam you've got it all wrong, as per usual…" I started but he wasn't listening and cut across me.

"I just can't see what you see in a stuck up, bore like him." He said causing George to look completely murderous, I calmed him with a look and turned to Adam.

"George isn't my boyfriend, not that it's any of your business." I said addressing him bluntly.

"I knew it wouldn't last." He said triumphantly, me and the old woman next to me sighed.

"Anyway I think me and you should go out sometime, what do you think Robin?" he asked and I hit the bell unable to take anymore.

I sprang to my feet and grabbed George by the shirt.

"Come on George." I said pulling him up out of his seat, we were up and off of the bus before Adam could as much as blink. I sighed in relief.

"Well that was interesting." Said George watching me as the bus pulled off again.

"Don't." I warned, he just smiled as I said "I can't stand him!"

"I gathered as much, especially since the last time I saw him you were chasing him out of your garden with pegs." He said laughing slightly but at the same time managing to look concerned, interested to know why I disliked him so much.

Sensing the oncoming question I said "he's my ex."

"There's more to it than that" said George looking serious "he did something to you."

I laughed dryly and closed my eyes, when I opened them George was stood there watching me still.

"He cheated on me, with a friend of mine" I said looking away as I told him the embarrassing truth "Because I wouldn't sleep with him."

George didn't reply, he knew better than to.

"And you know what the worst thing is? He didn't see any problem with it; he didn't think it was wrong of him to sneak around behind my back with my friend!"

"Robin." George said comfortingly and offered me his arm which I refused and said.

"We need to get going or we'll be late."

Thanks to Adam we had got off a stop early and had a fair bit of a walk to our temporary base. Since Sherwood had been burned down by Baxter we had needed somewhere to meet and for the time being we were using John's friend's apartment who was on holiday for a few weeks, John was looking after the place while he was away. It would take a little while longer for Baxter's builders to fix the damage, Baxter had burned down Sherwood believing he had found our secret office, which would be the truth, but in burning down the office he had destroyed all evidence that would have ever supported his claim and since Mr Jacubs our annoying neighbour had pressed charges (even though his office had not been damaged he couldn't come into work) Baxter had been told he had to pay for the renovation of our office and drop all charges against our names, including Will's , so it all worked out quite nicely in the end.

We walked a little way in silence but suddenly George stopped.

"I shouldn't have pried" He said "it wasn't any of my business."

I knew this was George's way of apologising for upsetting me and smiled at him.

"It's alright." I said.

He stroked my arm softly, smiling at me as if to reassure me things would be alright. The mark on my arm tingled at his touch and he let go at the same time I took a step back, did he feel it too? We carried on walking and were soon at the apartment block, I ran the bell only John had a key and when we were buzzed in we ran up to the second floor and knocked on the door. Jack greeted us with a nervous grin, her hair was a mess and she had something grey splattered across her cheek. We were about to question her appearance when the whole building shook and an explosion sounded from inside the apartment. I looked from Jack to George and we all darted into the room.


	4. Poketed Money

Chapter four

The apartment

"What the…." I started but words failed me as I entered the living room, chemistry apparatus was set up across the coffee table, the others sat crowded around the set, thick grey gunk was splattered all over the walls and the others.

"Well that didn't work." Mark said taking off his glasses and cleaning them on his shirt.

Will and John stared at him evilly; they too were splattered in the gray gunk.

"I thought you said it was going to work this time." Will said standing up to get himself a towel.

"I thought it would, I dunno maybe I've still got some things to work out." He replied.

"You don't say." Laughed Jack relived she had not been caught in the blast.

"Mind if I ask what's going on here?" I asked completely confused.

"Im…" started Mark but John bet him to it.

"He's trying to make some sort of James Bond smoke screen type stuff." Said John taking the towel Will offered him.

"Well I wouldn't have worded it like that but sure, im making smoke screen." Said Mark.

"Look at this place!" exclaimed John looking around "Matt's gunna kill me!" Matt is the guy whose apartment we were using.

"Why?" I asked Mark, and regarding the mess on the walls.

"Picture this, you're being chased by Baxter's men, they corner you and you have nothing to defend yourself with and no way of calling for help." Mark said setting the scene "but you have this" he picked up the glass beaker "you smash it on the ground and…"

"You slip away unseen." George finished.

"Exactly" Mark said going out fixing his chemistry set "I've just got bit more work to do is all."

"A bit! Exclaimed John "I said I'd look after Matt's flat, not redecorate it!"

"It'll be fine John" Jack said "we'll clean it up."

Will found a bucket and we all started cleaning, talking about how much of a shamble last night was as we went.

"Lets face it, it could have gone better." Will said scrubbing the leather settee.

"It could hardly have gone worse!" Jack said rubbing stain remover into the carpets.

"What happened anyway?" John asked as he carried clean furniture from the room.

"Well" Mark said, who despite bring the one who made them mess, was playing with his chemistry set again "I got to the mains room and started setting up and I dunno, someone must have been in the room because when I hit the switch someone must have knocked me out something because the next thing I remember was being dragged into the great hall by this big guy."

"Same thing happened to us" John said meaning himself and Jack "we were waiting for Robin's signal and Jack heard noises outside, I said I'd check it out but Jack said she'd go" that was so like Jack, never let anyone else do what she could do herself "so I kept watch, when she didn't come back I went to see what was happening and got whacked on the head by somat and I woke up in the hall again."

Jack nodded in confirmation.

"it must have been a trap because as soon as I got out of the view of the door someone attacked me and dragged me back inside." She said.

"Will? I asked.

"As soon as the lights went off one of them jumped me, I didn't even get a chance to get on stage and stop Baxter." He said.

"Its like they knew" I said more to myself than anyone else, I'd been dwelling on this thought since last night and it didn't sit well with me " somehow they knew we were there."

I stopped scrubbing the tiles in the conjoined kitchen and looked at the others; they looked as comfortable with the idea as I was.

"But how?" asked Jack "no one knew about it, except us, Joe and Jess."

"I dunno" I said "but they seemed too well prepared, like they saw it coming."

The others nodded in agreement, something wasn't right here.

"Im not sure he knew exactly" said George who had been silently cleaning the gas fire throughout the conversation " I followed him after you got away, he seemed too surprised, he was ranting and raving about his security guards not seeing through the guest list trick. I don't think he knew we were going to be there."

"You mean someone found out?" I asked him.

"Probably, you can get a lot done in a small space of time if you're as powerful as my dad is, if he had someone working the crowds, listening to conversations and then reporting back to him, it wouldn't be hard to find things like that out." He said and we considered this, nodding in agreement we decided it was probably true.

"We need to be more careful then, if he's got himself a spy we need to watch who we talk to." I said and the others agreed, there was previous few we could trust.

"What was all that about anyway, when he gave that speech about you stealing from the poor?" asked Mark who was laughing slightly as he poured chemicals into a test tube.

"Haven't a clue" I said "George he didn't say anything about that did he?"

"No he didn't" said George remembering something "but he's up to something, he said the set back worked to his advantage and that he'd achieved something last night anyway." He looked uncomfortable and added "he said something about you."

"That doesn't sound good" said Will.

Jack hit him in the arm for his lack of tact; they had become very close over the past few weeks.

"Im sure its nothing we cant handle." She said and the others, including Will who was rubbing his arm, agreed with her.

I smiled at them all and nodded, wondering what Baxter could be up to. Everyone got back to cleaning and John said something about going to the chippy to get us all some dinner. We would get very little done today if we didn't stay late, and to further dampen our spirits it was now raining outside, typical British weather I thought examining my clothes. Hours past and as the rain came down I turned to the others and asked.

"Everyone ready?"

Nottingham Road

From my perch on the roof of one of the many shops that lined the quiet street I looked through my binoculars, gazing in the direction our target was supposed to come from. Sat beside me Jack was watching in the other direction, just in case.

"All clear so far?" she asked me, upon my reply she gave George and Will, who were sat on a rooftop across the road, the signal for no movement. They passed the message on to John and Mark who hidden in an alley on our side of the street.

It was hard distinguishing between the bright lights of headlights which was the van we wanted, thanks to Jess and Joe we had found out that because Baxter didn't like just walking to the local bank and withdrawing his money that way he had it converted to cash and delivered to his house in secret, and all of this was happening tonight. The quickest way to the Baxter mansion was down this road and then up onto the main road, George had found records in his dad's office to prove this. Our plan was to intercept it before it got to the main road, Baxter didn't deal in small change, and the money in the van would go a long way.

Something caught my attention, bigger than the other vehicles' on the road and driving much too fast.

"Jack" I said "check this out."

I pointed to the van a little way off in the distance, it pulled onto the street and through the binoculars I read the number plate, it read 'M0 NEY' that matched the description Jess had given us. Jack signalled to the others and we sprang into action, the four of us climbed down from the rooftops and Mark and John came out of the alley, we took our positions.

I stepped out into the road and held my hand out for them to stop; they showed no sign of stopping as the sped towards me, which unnerved me slightly. When the van was close enough Jack, Will, John and Mark each took out a tire with a single arrow, the van stopped before me and I desperately hoped that we hadn't got the wrong person.

"Donations for the poor?" I called out as the other four surrounded the van.

Two men exited the van; clearly they worked for Baxter, tall, muscular and none too bright.

"Surely two men such as yourselves will be willing to give to a good cause." I said, no weapon in hand I stood there waiting, they hadn't yet noticed the others. One cracked his knuckles and they took a few steps towards me.

"Or maybe not." I said, clearly they weren't going to make this easy. The others took a step forward and came into view, bows pointed at the two men and they raised their hands.

George headed for the boot and I followed him.

"Let's see what we've got then." I said as he opened the door, several large sacks sat in the boot; George hopped in and inspected the contents of one. Hundreds of twenty pound notes filled the sack, the others were filled with the same, and this was looking promising. All this money would go along way to helping Southside pay Baxter's recent tax hike.

George smiled at me as he started unloading the sacks; he had really gotten into his new role as an outlaw. John and Mark ran to help George carry the sacks to Will's dad's car, leaving the Will and Jack in perfect control of the van drivers.

"You'd really think he'd protect his money abit more." I said, it wasn't like Baxter to be so risky when it came to his money, I wasn't complaining but something wasn't right.

"Well a heavily guarded delivery van would be more suspicious; maybe he wanted it to be inconspicuous." Mark said as he walked past me with a sack.

"Yeah I suppose." I said unconvinced.

"I know my dad" George said looking me in the eye as he walked past me "it shouldn't be this easy, I think your right."

Never the less we filled the car with sacks and prepared to make our exit.

"You'll be pleased to know gentlemen" I said addressing the two men still stood with their arms raised in front of their van "that your generous donation will go towards helping the poor of Locksdale."

"Not yet!" Will warned one driver who began to lower his arms, immediately they sprang back into position as he noticed Will's bow was still aimed at him.

"Thanks again boys!" I said and we headed back to the car Will and Jack slowly pulling up the rear making sure the drivers didn't try anything. Once they joined us we headed off without one single problem thrilled by the simplicity of the job and wondering why everything couldn't be this easy, we should have known there and then that it was too good to be true.


	5. Bad day

Chapter five

Café Locksley

Argh! I am so not having a good day!

"Robin! Table five, now!" shouted my slave driver of a boss Mr Jordans.

"Be right there." I said pouring milk into table five's cup of tea, then I grabbed a slice of lemon cake and ran over to the table.

"Here you go, sorry about the wait." I said putting down the order and dashing back to the till.

"Sorry" I apologised to the queue of waiting customers "what can I get you?"

I took everyone's orders and asked them to take a seat; I'd be with them in a moment, if they were lucky. But as I struggled to prepare everyone's food, more customers came through the door shouting requests at me, Will's mum and my colleague Carrie had called in sick today with a stomach bug and as fait would have it we were ridiculously busy today and I was in way over my head.

"You couldn't just handle this customer for me could you?" I asked Mr Jordans as I attempted to balance five orders so that I could serve more people.

"Robin you don't buy a donkey and carry your own bags, do you?" he replied.

"Who said anything about donkeys? I just need a hand." I yelled back.

"It means that's what I pay you for." He said smugly sat watching me suffer.

"I know what it means!" I snapped getting really annoyed "can't you just help me?"

He stood up and sighed, be still my beating heart, he was actually going to help me! Well that's what I thought anyway my hopes were soon dashed as he turned his back on me and headed in the other direction.

"Where are you going?" I asked exasperated.

"To my office, let me know if you need anything." He said laughing cruelly as he closed the door behind him.

"Thanks" I muttered sarcastically "really appreciate it."

I don't know why I bother with this, I really don't. The moneys not that good and it does me no favours.

"One bacon sandwich and tea with two sugars." I said miserably as I placed the order on the table.

We were running out of seats fast and the customers were complaining about having to order their food to go. After calming down the people who seemed to think requesting they take their food else where because the café was full and unreasonable request, I set about finishing the orders. Piling a tray high with tea cups and plates I handed out orders and collected used pottery while a fresh queue of customers tuted at my unprofessionalism.

"Achem!" scoffed a prim looking woman sat in the corner "my glass?"

Couldn't she see I was struggling as it was? But rather than argue with her I walked back to collect her glass, she turned her nose up as me as I did so, filthy little urchin I am. I can't stand stuck up people. I looked out the window at grey skies and rain, it was miserable outside, and I knew how it felt. I made my way back to the front of the room but slipped on a puddle of water, brought in by the waiting; rain drenched customers, and landed on the floor with broken pots and glass around me. And I swear I could have cried there and then out of pure frustration.

"Robin! What have you done?!" asked my boss emerging from his office.

"Im fine thanks." I mumbled sarcastically.

"Yes but my plates aren't!" he shouted scolding me in front of the whole café.

"I'll clean it up." I said as I began to pick up shards of broken glass, my hair hiding me and my humiliation from the spectators.

"You bet you will." Jordans spat and slammed his office door behind him.

"Let me help you." offered a man's voice as he bent down beside me.

"No thank…" I started, although he was the only person to offer me help, I wanted to show everyone in the café I wasn't weak, but I stopped as I looked up and saw his face.

"George." I said looking right into his deep blue eyes, now filled with concern and worry.

"You ok?" he asked as he started picking up the pieces that lay scattered on the floor.

"Im fine" I said "just a little bruised." referring to more than just my back side.

He smiled at me warmly as he picked up the tray, now covered in broken shards, and took it back to the kitchen.

"Thanks." I said smiling sadly.

He looked at me funnily and suddenly grabbed my hand and looked deeply into my eyes as he said.

"Are you sure you're ok."

"Im sure." I said, upon his touch sparks of electricity prickled in the bow shaped mark on my arm, my heart rate soared and my breathing became heavy, still I protested it had nothing to do with George.

My eyes danced in their sockets, taking in every inch of his face, from the wrinkles of his frowning brow to the way his lips parted while he watched me.

He didn't look convinced and opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off, bringing myself back to reality.

"It was just a little fall, im fine ok?" I said taking my hand out of his; don't get in here too deep Robin.

"Alright then" he said taking a set backwards, I sighed "I need to talk to you."

"Ok." I said waiting to hear what he had to say and trying to compose myself and my blushing cheeks.

"Not here." He said looking back at the café, this worried me slightly, what was he going to say?

"I can't, there's no way Jordan will let me go" I said my eyes widening as I remembered "the customers!" I ran back into the main room.

"What can I get you?" I asked the man at the front of the queue as George came and stood beside me.

"You're entitled to a brake surely." He said.

"Normally, yes" I said putting slices of bread in the toaster "but Will's mum's off sick and there's no one to watch the café."

"Can't you're boss do it?" he asked.

"Huh" I scoffed and said "can I help you?" to the next customer.

I went to sort the customers order but found George already rummaging through the cupboards for a pan and the fridge for bacon. I smiled and asked the next customer what he would like. Forty five minuets later the café was empty and the breakfast rush over.

"Phew" I breathed collapsing into one of the café's chairs "thanks."

"No problem" said George sitting beside me "but we really need to go now, the others are waiting."

"Others, you mean Will, Jack, John and Mark?" I asked, suddenly interested.

"Yeah." He said standing up.

"Why what wrong?" I asked, he made a face and shuffled uncomfortably on his feet.

"Tell me." I demanded.

"Let me show you." He said and pointed to the door. Confused, worried and intrigued all at the same time I stood up and walked towards Jordans' office, knocked and waited.

"What!?" came his reply.

I took that to mean I could come in.

"Can I take a brake?" I asked.

"Huh." He sniggered from behind his desk he then waved his hand in a dismissing sort of way.

"I really need a brake, I won't be long." I tried again.

"Your right you won't, coz you're not going." He said picking up his newspaper; my blood began to boil, so this was what he was doing all this time! I was about to say something but George cut in.

"I need her to come with me." He said stepping out from behind the door, Jordans froze, in front of him was Robert Baxter's son and no one in the town could deny him anything.

"Mr Baxter..."he started "I… do you need her now?"

"Yes." Said George with incredible authority, I didn't know he had in him.

"Err very well then" he said admitting defeat and nodded at George "but don't be long!" he warned now looking in my direction.

"She won't be." Said George and we headed out of the room and into the pouring rain. Dressed similarly to yesterday, in three quarter jeans, strappy top and dainty shoes, I had not counted on it raining, but that was British weather for you. George offered me his jacket several times but I refused, until a silver people carrier drove through a puddle drenching me in the process as we walked down the main road, after which I accepted the jacket.

We arrived at the apartment a good deal wetter than when we had set off and still I was no more informed. George had said very little on the run over only that it would be easier to show me. I knocked out the rhythm signalling our arrival on the door with shivering hands, John opened the door cautiously and eyes me guardedly as if scared of what I might do, I dismissed this and carried on to the living room.

"So what's wrong?" I asked as Mark handed me and George a towel.

No one answered, each shared a knowing glance and then Will nodded to Jack, and she picked up a newspaper off of the coffee table and handed it to me. The head line read.

"ROBIN HOODLUM!"

Authors note: sorry this chapter took so long to upload, too much to do too little time. Anyway not too sure about this chapter, I think maybe I could have done it better but please tell me what you think anyway. By the way please take my new poll on my profile I love hearing what you think. xxxx


	6. Silver lining

Chapter six

"What!?" I shouted completely gobsmacked.

"For full story turn to page 5." The writing beneath the headline read, viciously I turned the pages of the local wrag and read.

"The famous Robin Hood of Locksdale, local hero or common thief? Many regard Robin Hood as the defender of the innocent and saviour of the poor, through charitable acts and public displays of an inspiring nature Hood has managed to win the hearts of many towns foke, but what, again this reporter asks, do we actually know about her? In previous reports it has been made public that the sincere Robin Hood was in fact a woman and not, as this town was lead to believe, a man. This bending of the truth was not the only way the new Robin Hood differs from the original, on the night of the 3rd of august Hood was seen breaking into Mr Robert Baxter's mansion home on Birch Avenue during Mr Baxter's yearly summer masquerade ball, a looked forward to social event on most calendars, where Hood and his 'outlaw's' caused mass panic and confusion whilst attempting to steal the prized Baxter family goblet, which Mr Baxter had announced earlier that night would be melted down and the proceeds given to charity. We as a community have to ask Hood why? We here in Locksdale class the Baxter family goblet as a local treasure and I myself was delighted to hear Mr Baxter's plans to donate it to charity, why would a supposed do gooder steal from the very people she is sworn to help?..." the article went on but I could read no more, this was exactly like the last news paper article.

"Take a wild guess which paper it is." Said Will dryly I did as he said, it was the Locksdale inquirer.

"Katherine Taylor" I said dryly reading the journalists name "what's she got against me?"

"Hoodlum? This is just like the last story she wrote about me!" I tried to remain calm but this was starting to piss me off.

I collapsed into the settee and threw the paper back onto the coffee table, shivering still from the rain I stared miserably at the print.

"What does this woman want anyway?" asked John.

"She's my dad's favourite reporter" said George "she loves causing problems for other people, and she's good at it."

"So you think your dads behind this?" asked Mark.

"Well yeah" said George while trying to catch my eye "it's his paper isn't it."

"What about the goblet?" asked Will taking a seat in the arm chair and picking up the paper, a black and white photo of Baxter's goblet taking up a sizable portion of the page.

"Its still in the trophy room, I don't think he ever intended to give it to charity, it was all an act to make us look bad." George replied, although it was Will he was speaking to he watched me concernedly.

Taking the paper form Will, Mark read on "in other news a Bank of Locksdale delivery van was held under siege yesterday in an incident in which several thousand pounder were stolen. Robin Hood is thought to be related in some way and Mr Baxter and the representatives from the Bank of Locksdale are asking for witnesses to come forward.' Devious cow, she might as well have just said we took it. It isn't the Banks money anyway its Baxter's."

Shivering still I spoke "in that case we need to do something, we give out the money from heist to the Southside tonight." I sneezed.

George, sensing my discomfort, took the seat next to me and wrapped a comforting arm around me while I shivered.

"Are you ok?" he asked referring to my health.

"Im fine" I said now visibly shaking "just a bit cold that's all."

"Robin I don't think you are" said Jack walking towards me and placing her hand on my forehead, immediately she removed it "you have a fever."

Normally I would be inclined to believe her, as Jack was quite the medical expert, but I didn't have the time to be ill so insisted I was well.

"Look im fine ok?" I said though I still sat with George's strong, protective arm around me.

The others looked sceptically at me so I stood up trying to prove my point and said.

"I've never been better." But I was let down by a sudden outburst of sneezes. The others shook their heads at me, smiling at my stubbornness.

"Come on" said George standing up "lets get you home, there's no way you can go back to work in this state."

Jack nodded at him and said "she'll need plenty of bed rest and vitamin C."

"Don't worry Robin" said Will as George led me out the door "we'll sort out everything for tonight."

As we exited the apportionment building we saw, much to our relief that the rain had stopped, regardless of this George still insisted that I ware his jacket, and despite my protests refused to take no for an answer.

"Leave it to you to catch a cold in the summer." He said laughing as we headed down the main road.

"I wouldn't have caught one if you hadn't dragged me out of work and into the pouring rain." I said sulkily, not because George had given me a cold, but because of how useless and badly I felt.

"Should have seen that one coming, I'd forgotten everything was my fault." He said unable to believe they had once shared a passionate kiss.

"If your just going to have a go at me I can make my way home myself you know?" I said slightly taken a back by his words. "its not like I need you."

"I suppose you don't, but im here anyway. And besides you'd only end up hurting yourself if I don't come with you." He said as we reached to bus stop.

The bus came and we rode back to my house in near complete silence, except for when George rang up the café to say I was too ill to come back in, I would be more likely to be excused if the request came from the mouth of the mayors son. The bus pulled up at our stop and I rang the bell, vacating our seats we got off the bus and walked down the lane back to my house. We reached the door and stopped in a tense silence.

"Thanks" I said suddenly "and sorry im such a bitch at times."

Clearly taken a back by my apology George recovered and smiled at me warmly.

"No problem" he said "you're not well, it's to be expected."

I smiled back at him, glad he was so forgiving, I really did give him a hard time.

"You going in or are you going to sit out here all day?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, sorry." I said taking out my keys and unlocking the door. "Bye then." I said and made to shut the door.

"Oh no you don't, your not getting rid of me that easily" he said stepping in the house "if I go you'll never get to bed, and besides I told Jack I'd look after you."

There was no arguing with him.

"Honestly im fine." I protested as he pushed me up the stairs while carrying a hot water bottle, a bole of soup and an orange.

"Get going." He said his hand pressed firmly in the middle of my back, despite all his load he was still incredibly strong. We reached the door of my room and suddenly I felt much more uneasy about it.

"Ok I can do this myself you can leave now." I said opening the door. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Im not expecting you to get changed Robin." He said setting down the soup and the orange then throwing the water bottle to me.

"Just saying." I said pulling back my bed covers and clambering in. "happy now?" I asked.

"Very." He said sitting down beside me on the bed "you really are awkward you know Robin?"

"Thanks." I said sarcastically laying back in the pillows.

"And stubborn, and a lot like hard work." He continued.

"Are you going somewhere with this?" I asked not really sure why he was insulting me.

"But your loyal too" he said grinning at me "your caring and passionate and out of the ordinary."

Ok now I really wasn't sure where he was going with this.

"Or maybe that's just when you kiss." He said mischievously.

I rolled my eyes, trying to pretend I didn't like his teasing, trying to pretend I didn't like him being here.

"Ha-ha, im sure you can go now." I said trying to steer my thoughts away from him.

"Yeah, and the second im out of the door you'll be out of the bed" he said "im not going anywhere." I smiled up at him genuinely, for a brief moment he smiled back before picking up the bowl of soup and pushing it into my hands.

"Eat." He said bluntly still smiling at me.

As I spooned tomato soup into my mouth, I wasn't hungry but it would please him to see me eat, I watched him sitting there looking off into the distance. He looked troubled and sat gripping the edge of my bed with both hands, his bright blue eyes cast downwards and the playful smile gone from his lips. Sensing that all was not well I reached out for his hand covering it in my own I stoked his soft skin with my thumb, he looked up and our eyes met he smiled gratefully at me and I knew better than to ask what was wrong, this was something he needed to deal with himself.

"You'll need to get your sleep if your wanting to go to the drop off tonight." He said softly bathed in the afternoon sun coming in through the window. I nodded obediently and lay back in the pillows, he made no movement to leave and I closed my eyes safe in the knowledge that he was watching over me.


	7. Story time

Chapter seven

Hudson Farm

I woke up a few hours later, alone. I sat up confused and the sound of movement and talking downstairs told me my family had come back and George, hearing them had left, the open window confirmed my suspicions my family weren't exactly members of the Baxter family fan club. Throwing back the covers and standing up my world spun and I had to sit back down, clearly I still wasn't well, but I couldn't go back to bed I had to go to the drop off's tonight. I dressed quickly and simply the dark night sky outside my window, with the alarm clock on my bed reading 9 o'clock, told me I had to hurry. Halfway down the stairs I heard a voice not familiar to this household, it couldn't be, he wouldn't.

"That sounds just like her." Laughed my father's voice from the kitchen and cautiously I opened the door to George sat around the dinning table with my whole family.

"Hi sweetie." Greeted my mum sat next to dad laughing.

"Hi." I replied cautiously.

"Hi Robin." Smiled George from his seat.

"Your friend George was just telling us you didn't feel well." Mum said looking at me suspiciously, trying to guess at my health.

"Yeah, but im fine now." I said trying to reassure her while trying to catch George's eye.

"Says you put up a fair old fight too." Smiled my Granddad aware of how head strong and stubborn his granddaughter was.

"You always were wilful." Said my Grandma collecting mugs form the table.

"A pain in the backside's more like it." Laughed my Granddad and the rest of the family laughed in agreement "never would admit to not being well, such a little trouper" I blushed oh no "why I remember this one time…" he started but I cut him off, I knew this story.

"Ooookaaay" I said shaking my head franticly behind Georges back "no one wants to hear that story."

Getting my message my Granddad nodded "Oh yeah it's a boring story that one."

George looked round at me seeing what I'd done, I smiled innocently back at him.

"Its not boring Granddad, its funny" said Alice she turned to address George "one time it was the Christmas play at school and Robin got the lead..." as Alice spoke my eyes widened in horror.

"Alice." My mum warned by she carried on anyway.

"…But she got sick the day before the show and went all pale and sweaty, so mum told her she couldn't go because she didn't look well…" I could feel my face reddening but mercifully I was saved, Joey slipped his hand over Alice's mouth and picked her up and carried her out of the room.

"Thank you." I said as he walked past me with my aggravating little sister.

"No problem." He replied.

"Right" I said addressing George "don't we need to be going?"

"Err yeah" said George standing and thanking my parents for their hospitality and to me he said "shall we?" my parents raised their eyebrows approvingly and I shook my head at them.

"Have her back by eleven." My dad said suddenly very protective.

"What? You think…" I started but George cut across me and put his arm around my shoulder.

"I will Mr Hudson." He said and led me from the room and out the front door.

"They actually thought that we... that you… that us…" I stuttered not sure what to say "and you!" I said whacking him over the head "what'd you do that for?!" I demanded.

"Sorry I couldn't resist." He said grinning.

"Well next time don't! How long have they been back?" I asked all the new found appreciation I felt earlier lost.

"About an hour or so." He said as we walked up the lane, I cringed thinking how much damage could have been done in an hour.

"You better now then?" he asked me as we reached the road.

"Im fine." I lied.

"Good." He replied and the expression he wore told me he ment it too. I smiled back at him, I couldn't help it, it just seemed natural now, anyone who had known us at school wouldn't believe their eyes. I watched him as we made our way to the apartment, all the while thinking how he really wasn't all that bad. I mean how many guys did I know who would sit by my bedside when I was sick? Adam never would that's for sure.

"Can I help you?" asked George noticing I was staring at him.

"Never mind." I said looking away and blushing, I can't believe it's come to this.

Victoria Road 1 AM

"yawn." Muttered a tired Will "this is the last street right?"

"This is the last street." I said smiling at him propped up by a struggling Jack.

Half asleep the exhausted teenagers divided up the street and began posting envelopes'. I reached the last of my houses and waved the envelope at George playfully and he smiled at me while taking his own envelope out of his bag for the house next to mine. I heard the soft thud of the money hitting the carpet on the other side of the door turning round I saw John dancing at the end of the street celebrating finishing for the night, the others silently laughing at him and then my world went black I was vaguely aware of the sensation of falling and the next thing I knew I was waking up in Georges arms.

"Mmmmm?" I moaned sprawled out on the floor my head resting on George's knee and everyone crowded around me looking worried.

Jack bent down and pulled my eyelid back with her thumb checking me over and then saying.

"She's alright."

"Bloody hell Robin." Sighed Will letting out a deep breath in relief.

"You little lie; you told me you were feeling better." George said softly holding me tightly.

"Mmmmm." I moaned again attempting to sit up "sorry."

"Robin!" shouted Mark pointing skywards as a bright flash came from the rooftops.

I had barely the time to turn round before Jack, John, Mark and Will had ran off in search of the interruption.

"Don't even think about it!" warned George as I made another attempt to get to my feet.

"I need to get up there!" I insisted my strength returning. Seeing my desperation George looked from the direction the others had ran up the street and back at me.

"Come on then." He said standing up slowly helping me as he did so. With George's aid, though I insisted I didn't need it, I made it to the house the light had issued form.

"There gone." Said Will climbing down the rope they had used to get up.

"But they left this." Mark said throwing me an empty camera bag from the roof.

As I held the dark fabric in my hands a terrible ominous feeling swept over me, no good could come from this.

Author note: just want to say thank you to everyone who has read my work so far, its really appreciated, and a special thank you to Burnsier for her comments! Reviews equal love so thanks! Just another gentle reminder to please take my poll on my profile! Who is your favourite character? Also I don't really like the chapter title, if anyone has a better one I be glad to hear it. 


	8. Hot 'n' cold

Chapter eight

Baxter Mansion, security room

8am

Sitting in front of the TV screen Robert Baxter flicked through the security tapes until he found the one he wanted. Playing last night's tape he fast

forwarded then stopped suddenly, he smiled wickedly. The digital clock on the corner of the screen read

02:00, perfect. A tall youth appeared in the left hand corner of the cameras view, his dark clothing almost hiding him in the blackness of the night. He made

his way across the shadowy lawn towards a window on the left side of the house, Baxter's son's room. The boy took from over his shoulder a bow and quickly

fired an arrow attached to a length of rope into the wooden beam above the window. Using the rope the youth clambered onto the balcony and hastily removed

the arrow, relaxing a little he took down his hood, and removed what seemed to be a mask of some sort revealing sandy blond hair. Baxter paused the tape

grinning.

Hudson farm, Robin's room

10am

I sighed as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, confined to my room on George's orders I wasn't a happy bunny. It turned out neither was George, after my

incident last night George had made me promise I would stay in bed until I was completely well again. It turned out he had been extremely worried about me in

my few brief moments of unconsciousness, and didn't appreciate me lying to him and saying I was well when I clearly wasn't. So I ended up here, in bed,

sleeping away the best part of my day.

"Robin are you ok sweetie?" my mum shouted up the stairs, George had employed my family in keeping me in bed today.

"Im fine thanks mum." I shouted back giving myself a headache.

"Good, you still in bed?" my mum shouted again. See what I mean.

"Yes." I called back sinking into my pillows my thumb and forefinger massaging my temples. Maybe they were right; maybe I did need to take it easy, well at

least until this cold clears up anyway. With this in mind I closed my eyes, smiling slightly as I though of my boss Mr Jordans, who had to, for a change,

actually pull his own weight around the café with both me and Carrie off sick. Maybe he'll start to appreciate how much we do, do for him. Ha not likely I

thought, then fell to sleep.

Several hours, two paracetamol and one carton of orange juice later I was feeling much better. Remembering that today was the day we could take a look at

the construction work being done on the office I climbed out of bed, opened my window and looked at the time. Half past two, I had half an hour until the

viewing. Hastily getting dressed, putting on my makeup and grabbing something to eat I was soon ready to go.

I walked through the now empty house, my mum having gone out to pick Alice up from a friend's house, picked up my iPod and headed out the door. Happily I

walked down the lane, got on the bus and was soon at Sherwood, dancing to Katy Perry "Hot 'n' cold" all the way.

I arrived five minuets late to everyone, baring George who had to attend a governors meeting with his farther, stood in the front garden looking up at the office.

"Robin?" asked John "what are you doing hear?"

"Yeah, your not well remember?" asked Will leaning against the wall.

"Im fine, I've done my bed rest and im better now." I said trying to prove my point "don't I look better Jack?"

"She does look better." Jack admitted.

"Its good to have ya back then Robin." Will said smiling from his perch next to Jack in a jokey way.

"So when we going in?" I asked joining them all on the wall.

"Five minuets they said." Mark replied.

We didn't wait long; soon a tall man in a hard hat opened the front door and invited us into our office building. The hall way the first room we saw, had been damaged little in the fire and now looked like new, the builders had done a good job.

"Not too shabby." Said Will, apprentice builder that he is, inspecting the work.

"Can we see upstairs?" I asked our guide he nodded and we headed up the stairs.

On the landing we were greeted by the small reception area we had built now almost exactly the way it was, minus furniture. We proceeded through to the main office and found construction workers still hard at work putting the finishing touches to the room, plastering and sorting floor boards.

"How long do you think it will be until it's finished?" I asked our builder.

"Not too long" he replied, seemingly not fazed by the fact we were all under the age of eighteen "a week I reckon, maybe too."

"Sounds good." Will said.

"Yeah." Muttered John. As our resident builder he critically examined the work men's handy work.

There was a knock on the door down stairs and the builder excused himself to go and answer it. Pleased with the result of Baxter's work men I looked around the room, little was left to be completed and I was looking forward to moving back in. Furniture needed to be replaced, and there was a lot of painting to do but nothing too major, the rest had been paid for at Baxter's expense and that its self was an achievement.

"Miss Hudson, I got someone down ere asking for ya." The builder shouted from the front door.

"Im coming." I replied leaving the others to their own devices. Mark walked around deciding where best to place his inventions while Jack and Will roared with laughter as they watched John trying to show a builder how best to plaster a wall.

As I descended down the stairs is could see the builder stood with the door open, but could not make out who was stood on the other side because of the low ceiling blocking the view. A reached the last step and nearly fell over as a dark haired teen came into view, I wasn't expecting him.

"Can I help you?" I asked snappily, still trying to keep my cool.

"Hi Robin." Adam replied as if I hadn't spoken.

"Can I help you?" I repeated as the builder walked past me and headed up the stairs.

Adam walked into the entrance hall grinning at me in a way that made me incredibly uncomfortable, or maybe it was just the fact that my cheating ex was near me that made my skin crawl.

"Actually you can" he said "I need to ask you a favour."

"Ha!" I scoffed "me do you a favour? Not likely."

"You always gotta be like that." He commented not helping his cause. "Can't you just be right with people?"

"Im fine with people Adam, it's just you I've got a problem with!" I replied tiring of our repetitive conversations "You gunna tell me what you wanted to tell me or not?"

He gave me a funny look, somewhere between anger and admiration and began to speak.

"I saw your advert in the paper." He said "you know for your decorating company?"

"Yeah." I replied impatiently wishing he'd just hurry up and get to the point so he could leave.

"Well I've come to ask for a job, with you, here." He said smoothly grinning away, and my heart rate soared. No way, there was no way he was working here with us! He'd dive me up the wall.

"Sorry, we don't have any job vacancies." I said quickly and desperately trying to keep the panic from my voice.

"Well what about down here?" he asked "does the guy in the office down here need anyone?"

"No." I replied jut as rapidly as before.

Suddenly I heard movement at the top of the stairs and Will lent over the banister and yelled.

"Robin, Mr Jacubs called, he said to tell anyone applying for his job vacancy to come back next Monday when his office is open again."

"Thanks Will." I grudgingly called back to Will; well that was the worst timing, ever!

I turned back round to face Adam and saw him watching me with I triumphant look on his face. Every inch of his expression shouted got ya!

"I'll see you next Monday then." He said.

"Great." I replied sarcastically.

"Bye Robin." He said kissing me on the cheek then smoothly making he exit.

Resisting the impulse to throw up I collapsed onto the stairs, things around here were going to get a whole lot more difficult.

George opened the front door, dressed as he was for the meeting in a white shirt and back trousers, an unfastened tie hung round his neck and an expensive business jacket was draped over his arm.

"Hi Robin." He smiled spotting me on the bottom step. I let out a groan and held my head in my hands. Oh I can't wait to see what happens next.


	9. Bad Girl

Chapter nine

Locksdale's Southside

After Adam left I was over come by a throbbing headache, as well as the desire to throw up, so at the insistence of everyone else, especially George who after seeing me sat on the stairs at Sherwood was annoyed I hadn't listened to him and had left the house. So there I was walking the streets of the Southside on my way home, in my current state a rickety old bus full of talking people didn't appeal to me much, instead I chose to walk. Passing a teenage couple wrapped around one and other my mind jumped back to Adam and my blood boiled, ooooh he really annoyed me, why could he not just leave me alone? I mean wasn't it bad enough him cheating on me with my best friend, he had to come back into my life and apply for a job downstairs with Mr Jacubs? Forcefully I walked the streets, blood pumping in my ears worsening my headache.

As I rounded the corner I came face to face with one of Baxter's posters for squad members, and instead of being filled with rage, as seeing this would have usaly have done to me, I smiled. Thinking of George my whole body softened, I unclenched my fists and dropped my shoulders, he often had this effect on me. Although I pretend he annoys me and I pretend I don't like him fussing round me, being around him really is the highlight of my day and the fact that he cares enough to want me to get better is really sweet. I never thought I'd admit this, not even to myself, but I think im falling for him.

As I thought this a big stupid grin spread across my face, my spirits soared and my heart lifted. Yeah I am falling for him. Ridiculously happy I walked down the busy high street close to my house, passing gossiping shoppers and bold newsstands, but still with my head in the clouds I couldn't see, or hear what was right in front of me.

"I know it's outrageous!" one woman exclaimed to her companion, not catching the rest of the conversation I was a little confused but didn't dwell on it and carried on walking.

"… on top of everything else as well." Commented another passer by, but again I carried on walking not stopping to hear the rest.

"… She should be ashamed, and we all thought she was a lovely girl…" ok now I was interested in what everyone was talking about, who should be ashamed, now openly listening to other people's conversations I got an answer to my question.

"…She's supposed to be helping us, not messing around with her male companions! When there are people out there needing her as well, maybe that Robin Hood's not what we thought." Said one man to his wife, upon hearing my name I gasped, what? Me, 'messing around with male companions'? What was going on?

Quickening my pace I soon made it past the gossiping crowds, my head buzzing with their words. 'We all thought she was a lovely girl', 'it's outrageous', 'not what we thought'. I couldn't believe it; no one had ever doubted I was doing my best to help to poor, or my intentions. Nearing my home I desperately wanted to know who was spreading this, and what sort of sick kick they were getting out of it.

Bursting into the house I found that everyone else was home, in my state I managed to notice my mum cooking dinner in the kitchen, my Grandma watching telly with Alice and Joey in the room, my Granddad reading the paper in the arm chair and the sound of the shower on upstairs told me where my dad was. Desperate to get some answers I headed towards the stairs but was called into the kitchen by mum.

"Robin where've you been, I thought you were staying in bed today." She said regarding my windswept hair and exhausted expression with concern.

"We were invited to go see how things are going on at the office, I was feeling better so I thought I'd go" I said trying my hardest to smile and look healthy "sorry I didn't tell you." I said hoping to finish the conversation so I could rush upstairs.

"It's not just that" she said looking at me funnily as her expression changed, grinning in an all-knowing way " it's George, he was worried about you, he called round to see how you were but you weren't hear."

I blushed as I saw what she was implying and despite my knew found acknowledgement of my feelings it would take quite some time to get used to the idea and become comfortable with it.

"Mum…" I started ready to deny the accusation, but I was interrupted by I knock at the door.

"I'll get it." Shouted my dad from halfway down the stairs, and now fully dressed.

"Oh hi George." He said and I looked up.

"Hi Mr Hudson, is Robin in? I really need to talk to her." George respectfully replied.

"Yeah she's back from her little wonderings now" my dad said and I held my head in my hands "come on in."

"Im in here." I called out letting George know where I was, I watched the kitchen door waiting for him to open it, unable to look at the smug look on my mums face.

George entered the kitchen wearing a troubled expression, and carrying a folded paper under his arms.

"We've got a problem." He said raising his eyebrows meaningfully at me.

"You don't say." I replied meaning something completely different to what he did, turning to my mum I said "im just gunna go talk to George."

"By all means go." Said my mum giggling slightly absolutely loving this, George looked questioningly at her but I just ushered him from the room. For lack of anywhere else to have a private discussion I lead him to my bedroom, maybe I should reword that, so that we could talk we went upstairs, yeah that works. Closing the door behind me I asked.

"What's wrong?" although I already knew the answer.

He held up the paper he was holding, the Locksdale Inquirer, and there taking up most of the front page was a photograph of me and him from last night. It had obviously been taken by the guy the others had chased off yesterday, it captured me and George, or rather Robin Hood and the Crusader, in a very negative light. Smartly the photographer had kept the others out of the photo, thus making it look like we were sharing a romantic moment. And oh how it looked just that, taken just after I had fainted the photo showed George cradling my heading in his arms and me resting on his lap, I appeared to be looking up at him lovingly with a slight smile on my lips while he regarded me with a playful look. It made the scene look completely different than how it was; it looked less like George scolding me for lying to him and more like a scene from a movie. Shutting my mouth, which had fallen open in shock upon seeing the photo I attempted to speak.

"Well, that explains a lot." I said, I hadn't even needed to read the article to see the angle they had taken, the headline read 'Bad girl'.

"Have you seen this before?" George asked clearly frustrated.

"No but I heard a load of people talking about it in the street, now I know where they got it from." I said, my cheeks red with both anger and humiliation

"Have they honestly got nothing better to do than making up rubbish like this? What is it going to achieve anyway?" said George running his hands through his hair.

I thought about it, what was it going to achieve all of this? All of the verbal bashing and disgracing of mine and the outlaws good name, why was he doing this? I couldn't figure it out, all he was doing was embarrassing us slightly and throwing a few shadows of doubt our way, what was this going to do?

"What's he up to?" I asked aloud still pondering, not really expecting a reply.

"Trying to make us look bad." George said waving the paper around.

"He's given the public something to gossip about, it hardly class' us as criminals. He's playing games with us." I said more to myself than George.

"It didn't look anything like that." Said George looking at the paper again, suddenly I noticed his cheeks were as red as mine surely were.

"With the right words above and beneath it, they can make it look like anything they want" I said walking over to look at the photo again "so long as they plant the right idea in your head."

George nodded and said "yeah, talk about sleaze journalism, what a way to make a living, hiding on rooftops."

"I know pathetic init." I said noticing something I hadn't before I gasped "oh tell me I didn't really look like that." I said meaning the gormless look on my face.

"No, that's how you look all the time." George laughed for which I punched him in the arm.

"Thanks!" I commented sarcastically "it's not like you look any better, oh if I ever get my hands on the guy that took this photo!"

"Not if I get to him first." Said George tensely, this was clearly bothering him.

Behind us my computer made a noise, having left it on this morning, much to my mums annoyance because of rising electricity prices, I sat in the chair and saw the others were trying to speak to me on MSN.

_WillScarlet says: Robin you there?_

With George at my side I replied.

_RobinHud says: im here so is George. _

_DeeJack says: Hi _

_LittleJohn says: hi u 2_

_MarkTheMuch says: hi guys _

_WillScarlet says: you seen the papers?_

_RobinHud says: yep unfortunately_

_DeeJack says: I can't believe they did that, u 2 ok?_

_LittleJohn says: ow bad is that? We did try to stop them robin, am sorry. _

_RobinHud says: we r ok, n John its not u lots fault ok?_

_MarkTheMuch says: what r u goin 2 do? _

_RobinHud says: nothing, what can we do? If that's the worst Baxter can do then he's come up short._

_DeeJack says: that's the spirit ___

_WillScarlet says: find the guy that took the photo and give him a piece of your mind! _

Will was referring to my question.

_RobinHud says: that wont do no gd, it'll just give Baxter something else to write about. _

_DeeJack says: Robin's right, don't wanna make things worse. _

_WillScarlet says: yeah I suppose. _

_RobinHud says: ____ thanks Will. _

_MarkTheMuch says: now we've got that sorted, what u doin about Adam? _

George looked at me questioningly but I ignored him and typed.

_RobinHud says: what about him?_

_MarkTheMuch says: I don't think you really want him working downstairs. _

_LittleJohn says: I don't. _

_DeeJack says: me neither, he creeps me out, and from what you've said it'd be better if he didn't. _

"You kept that quiet." Comment George next to me, he looked a little hurt and offended I hadn't told him.

"I didn't think it was important." I offered pathetically, George didn't buy it.

"Your sinister ex boy friend is getting a job downstairs; I think that's pretty important!" he said, but I was saved by Will saying.

_WillScarlet says: im sorry about that robin, I didn't know he was there or else I wouldn't have shouted about the job._

_RobinHud says; it's ok Will._

_LittleJohn says: we can't let him get it. _

_DeeJack says: definitely. _

_WillScarlet says: how?_

_RobinHud says:???_

_MarkTheMuch says: leave it to me. _

_WillScarlet says: y wot u got planned? _

_MarkTheMuch says: I'll sort it. _

_DeeJack says: very spooky Mark lol._

_RobinHud says: thanks Mark xx_

_WillScarlet says: Jack u still ok 4 2morrow? _

_RobinHud says: lol_

_LittleJohn says: oh yeah Will._

_WillScarlet says: wot?_

_MarkTheMuch says: you + jack _

_WillScarlet says: no, not likely? _

_LittleJohn says: if u say so._

_MarkTheMuch says: yeah ok Will _

_WillScarlet says: jack u there? _

Will clearly worried about Jack reading this was getting worried.

_WillScarlet says: jack?_

_WillScarlet says: u there?_

_LittleJohn says: she's seen what uv said and ran. Hehe _

_MarkTheMuch says: lol _

_WillScarlet says: cheers guys. _

_RobinHud says: I don't think she's there._

_DeeJack says: sorry, my mum came in my room 2 ask me something, had 2 hide the convo, what I miss? _

_WillScarlet says: Jack! U still ok 4 going to Lockhall Park 4 the town BBQ?_

_DeeJack says: tomorrow?_

_LittleJohn: lol_

_WillScarlet says: Saturday tomorrow yeah._

_DeeJack says: yeah I'll c u there ___

I could just about see Will jumping around the room at Jack's response; everyone could see how he felt about her, well everyone except Jack.

_MarkTheMuch: we still doing the drop off Sunday? _

_RobinHud says: yep, 9 o'clock _

_WillScarlet says: we r doing Barnsley road and the rest o that area?_

On the desk by the computer my phone vibrated signalling a text message, an unfamiliar number greeted me, I picked up the phone and gasped as I read the message. George sat sulkily next to me, I knew he was annoyed but I couldn't think of that now.

_RobinHud says: I've g2g will c u Sunday xx_

_MarkTheMuch says: kk bye _

_DeeJack says: bye x_

_WillScarlet says: c u then_

_LittleJohn says: bye robin_

I signed off and sat staring at a blank screen; George was watching me, his angry face swapped for one of concern.

"What's wrong Robin?" he asked gently.

I didn't answer, I couldn't, and I was too shocked. The words from the message resounding in my head and I could hear nothing else.

Hi Robin, just textin 2 say I know ur secret. Don't bother denying it coz I wont listen, we need 2 talk.

Luv Adam

Xxxx

Author note: please review and let me know what you think, especially about the whole thing with MSN, does it work? Im not too sure. Anyway let me know what you think. xxx


	10. Interview

Chapter ten

The weekend passed by relatively uneventfully, much to mine and the others relief. And as Friday turned into Monday I was overwhelmed with a wonderful sense of peace and tranquillity, things were looking up, but it was just a matter of time.

"You working late tonight?" my cousin Joey asked me from across the breakfast table.

"Yeah. But not too late today." I said, the lie falling casually from my lips. As my usual excuse for my absences was that I was working late it came so easily, much to my concern.

"I'll tell your mum then, when she gets back from dropping Alice off at Wendy's." he said standing up and dropping his cereal bowl into the sink.

"Thanks Joey, see you later." I said dropping my own bowl in for him to wash and heading out the door.

The walk to the café took little time today and I opened the door to find Carrie standing behind the till preparing to open up.

"Your back!" I exclaimed, smiling in greeting.

"I am" she said smiling back "hope it wasn't too hard for you last week on your own."

I thought back to last week, it hadn't exactly been easy.

"I wasn't in all week, so it wasn't too bad." I said taking chairs off of tables so we could open up.

"I know, Will told me you weren't well. You better now though?" she asked.

"Yeah but…" I started but wasn't able to finish as Jordan's interrupted.

"Are you two going to get some work done today, or just stand there gossiping all day?" he shouted from his office.

Laughing at him we shook our heads in exasperation.

"Well something's never change." Carrie said turning the closed sign to open.

"Got that right." I said, maybe I had spoken too soon about the tranquillity thing.

Hudson Farm

Friday

1 pm

My breathing heavy I sat staring at my phone, George by my side watched me worriedly.

"Robin are you ok?" he asked reaching forward and placing a hand on my shoulder. I didn't reply I just shook my head unable to speak.

'I know your secret'

That couldn't be right, could it? I mean there is no way he could possibly know about that, but what else could he possibly be talking about? Slowly, handling it as though it was a poisonous snake ready to strike, I picked up my mobile and opened a blank text message.

'What do u mean?' I typed. Sending the message I looked up at George, there was no way I could tell him, how he had reacted to Adam applying for a job in the office below us didn't make me want to tell him about Adam's text.

"Robin?" he asked again softly, his worried eyes staring into mine.

"Im fine." I said croakily, looking away unable to look him in the eye.

My phone vibrated and hurriedly I read the message.

'You don't like being around me.' It said and I sighed in relief, is that all?

'Trust me that's no secret!' I text back, suddenly I was furious at how he'd scared me.

"Who's that?" asked George meaning the text.

"No one" I said sliding the mobile across my desk and standing up. "You'd best be off, your dad'll be looking for you." I said although I knew Baxter couldn't care less where George was.

"Your right." George said accepting I wanted to be alone.

He crossed the room, and I got up to show him to the door but he stopped me with his hand.

"I know the way" he said smiling sadly at me "see you Sunday then."

"See you Sunday." I replied as he exited the room, hating myself for how I'd treated him, but I really couldn't have him in the room right now. On the desk my mobile phone sounded again, a little less cautious I picked it up and read the message.

'Maybe its not' he critically replied. What was going on with this guy, how confusing? Ignoring the message I could only hope that was the end of that.

Café Locksdale

Monday

4 pm

"I'll see you tomorrow Carrie." I called as I headed out of the door at the end of my shift.

"See you tomorrow love." She called back from her post cleaning down a table at the far side of the room.

On the bus ride over to John's friend's apartment I was conscious of the time, Adam's interview was scheduled for half past four and I would be cutting it pretty close. I only knew this because of Will, my sneaky friend had over heard Mr Jacubs talking about it a few days ago. We approached my stop and I rang the bell and got off the bus just outside the apartment building, I looked up at the apartment window to see figures moving about in side, most likely Mark setting up for the screening. A genius as ever Mark had decided the best way to know what was going on in the interview was to be in Jacubs office, and since none of us fancied hiding in Jacubs back room Mark resorted to modern technology. Hiding a miniature camera and microphone in a single fake flower and planting it amongst the real ones in vase on Jacubs desk, he had been able to send perfect video transitions complete with sound straight to his laptop. It was fool proof, I had even inspected the flower myself, and could see not sign at all of the camera or the microphone, it was ingenious.

"Hope im not too late." I said walking into the apartment, to all the others sat around the laptop waiting eagerly for the show to begin.

"Nope, pull up a seat." Will called patting the carpet beside him.

I sat down without the slightest trace of guilt; did I think I was invading Adam's privacy by doing this? No, not at all. The way I figure it I have a right to know what my cheating ex boyfriend is up to, and if I don't, I should. Mark began messing around with the laptop and the media player came up on the screen and Jacubs empty office came into view.

"Hear we go." Mark said sitting back.

From the laptop we could hear a knock on the door, followed by the scraping a chair telling us Mr Jacubs, who was out of the view of the camera, was going to answer the door.

"Anyone home?" Joe called from the hallway; he appeared in the doorway his sister behind him.

"Shhhh!" we scolded collectively, our eyes glued to the screen as Adam sat in the chair across from Mr Jacubs and right in front of the camera.

"What you doing?" Jess asked walking into the room and looking at the screen.

"Watching this." Jack replied from beside Will.

They both nodded and took a seat on the floor, intrigued as to what was going on.

"So Mr Adam Stuart." Mr Jacubs began. As I watched I was immediately reminded of the other day, and George. Not hear because of one of his fathers meetings, he would have to be filled in on this, one of his least favourite subjects later on. "tell me about your self."

"Well, I attended Locksdale secondary school for five year." Said a sheepish looking Adam.

"Ha, I can't believe your listening in on some kids job interview" Joe said laughing "you lot are a right laugh!"

"Ah" said Mr Jacubs and there was the sound of rustling papers "you're predicted grades are quite good but I don't suppose you have your actual GCSE results yet?"

"No not yet, I'll be getting them in a few weeks though." He said in a very formal voice, something was pushing him forward, there was no way he would behave like this on his own accord, he wanted something.

"Very well, what do you know about my company?" Mr Jacubs asked moving on.

"That you cater for a wide range of customers, ranging from ex miners to business executives of Mr Baxter. That you are one of the most sort after accountants in town…" Adam said meaning to go on, he had clearly done his homework, but Jacubs interrupted him.

"Yes well…" he stuttered clearly flattered that Adam knew so much about him.

"Kiss up." I commented as Adam beamed with pride at how well his interview was going.

"Achem, so why do you want to work for me?" Jacubs continued regaining himself.

"I am aiming to learn more about assisting through following in your footsteps, I aim to become a productive part of your company, learn its strengths and weaknesses and assist in anyway I can." Adam said.

"Always a good quality when applying for an assistant job" Jacubs said but not however in a sarcastic manor, as he would had any of us said that, he said it with admiration. "And what qualities do you have, that would set you apart from other people applying for this job?"

" I can work any hours as I am very flexible, I am hard working, determined and single minded when it comes to something I want" was it just me or did he look at the camera when he said that? "But im also a team player and understand the importance of working with other staff members."

"Oh he's good." John said behind me.

"Very good, now should I hire you how long would you intend to be working for me?" Jacubs asked.

"As long as we both feel I am achieving and contributing to the company, which I hope will be a long time yet. Of course I will require different hours during the collage term, so I can continue to learn and bring back skills that will help your company." He said smugly grinning, he had this job in the bag and he knew it. What I couldn't understand though was where all this had come from, the Adam I knew wouldn't have known the first thing to say at an interview, where was he getting this from?

"Yes, well, very good…excuse me wont you, my flowers are wilting, let me just water them." Mr Jacubs said followed by the noise of scrapping chairs.

"Nooooooo!" we collectively screamed, jumping to our feet as if we might do something to stop this.

Adam sat looking right at the camera a big smug grin on his face, Jacubs walked into the line of the camera with a watering can in his hand. He pored the water into the vase and a load crackling sound was emitted from the laptop causing us all to cover our ears.

"The microphones gone." Said Mark attempting to salvage the camera, but his efforts were in vain as the camera began to blink and fuzz, it was becoming increasingly hard to see what was happening. The last clear picture was one of Mr Jacubs shaking Adam's hand, he had got the job.

"Sorry guys." Mark said giving up on the camera.

"Its ok mate" John said patting Mark on the back laughing "you tried."

As the rest of us joined in laughing Mark said "Thanks John."

"Well that was random" Said Joe sitting down on the settee "who was that guy anyway?"

"Adam." I said my voice sharpening at the word.

"Adam?" asked Jess, she had heard about a cheating Adam a while ago from me.

"Yep Adam." I replied.

"And he's got a job downstairs in Sherwood? You got my sympathies girl." She said sitting beside her brother.

"Tell me about it." I moaned thinking of it; this wasn't going to be fun.

"What news then?" asked Jack from the chair arm, she too was wondering what had brought them hear.

"This" Said Joe taking a bag of coins from his pocket and throwing it to Jack. "Got it collecting from the decent rich people up on Honeywell Street last night."

"whoa." She gasped tipping it into her hand.

"It's so much better when people give the money willingly and we don't have to steal it." Jess said accepting a glass of water from John.

"Speak for yourself." Joe said sulkily. For that he got a slap over the head from his sister, while the others laughed and Joe made a show of asking what that was for, my phone started ringing. It played Sugarbabes 'Denial' which told me exactly who was ringing, Georges name came up on the screen and I answered.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Robin! I need your help!" George's ragged voice replied desperately.


	11. Murder at the mansion

Chapter eleven

The apartment

"George? What's wrong?" I asked as an awful, unwelcome thought formed in my mind "are you alright?" I asked tensely.

At my words the room fell into silence, everyone turned round and watched me with worried looks on their faces, what's happening? Their eyes asked desperately.

"Im ok, its not me, it's a friend of my fathers, he needs our help." George replied, cutting to the chase, and I felt the lump that had formed in my throat after George said he needed help, disappear and I let out the breath I had been holding.

"A friend of your dads?" I asked sceptically "don't we usaly try to avoid people like that?"

The others expressions changed, confused and in the dark on this particular conversation they exchanged bewildered glances.

"Robin" his breath was short, he sounded as if he had just ran a mile " I really need you here, he has betrayed my father or so father says, he's been ranting about it all day and now he's invited him here, to the house, it's a bad sign, he's going to do something!"

"You mean…?" I started now understanding the problem, but my voice caught in my throat and I couldn't finish my sentence.

"He'll kill him" George said catching my drift and answering my question "so it's an emergency."

"We'll be right there." I said a sudden feeling of dread taking hold of me; I didn't have a good feeling about this.

"I'll meet you across the street at half past six, that's when he's due." Said George and then he hung up.

"What's wrong?" asked Jack after I got off the phone.

"We need to go." I said, lost for more words.

Explaining the story as we drove over to Baxter mansion the others shared in my horror. No one had ever really believed those stories of Baxter, they had always been a kind of ghost story or fiction told by the older generations to scare us, in our opinion, but we had the sickening feeling we were about to be proved wrong. Joe and Jess insisted on accompanying us and doing what they could to help, John pulled up in the van across the road from Baxter's mansion and we waited for George. It had just turned half past six and it was binging to turn dark, with no sign of George or the man we were supposed to be saving, we waited anxiously.

"Look." Will said, pointing to a figure walking about half way down Baxter's gargantuan drive way, it was George.

All of us now in hyper alert mode watched as George approached the security guards house by the gates, he tapped on the glass and said something to the man inside. Still talking to George the security guard came out looking confused, George talking still, shrugged and pointed up to the mansion, the guard headed up the drive back the way George had come. George quickly hopped inside the guard house as the security guard disappeared through the front doors, stepping out again a few moments later George motioned for us to come.

The seven of us exited the van (don't ask me how we all fitted in there) and began to walk towards George, as I pulled my hood up over my masquerade mask I noticed the fear on George's face before he put on his own.

"George." Joe said in greeting, patting George on the back. George returned the greeting and then got straight down to business.

"He's already in there, so we best hurry because we wont have much time" he said as he began to walk through the gates and up the drive, noticing our apprehension he said "I've turned off the CCTV camera's in the grounds, no one can see us."

We followed, not quite sure what to expect. We were half way up the drive before George spoke again.

"His name is Andrew Kennedy, he used to be a major partner in the sell out project" as George said this I was instantly remained of a few weeks previous "but backed out recently, without an explanation, just said he didn't want to be part of it any more."

That seemed like a perfectly good explanation to me, the guy gained a conscience, but I didn't say anything, instead I listened.

"But I don't think that's what's got my father so hot under the collar; even he wouldn't class that as betrayal. He did say something about him running around behind his back." He said in hushed tones as he diverted us from the gravel driveway and onto the grass. "And if that's true he doesn't stand much of a chance."

Behind his mask I saw Joe raise his eye brows as he asked "for real?"

"My father doesn't take kindly to betrayal." George said gravely, this made me think. How would Baxter react if he knew what George was doing? Would he show leniency because he was his son, or would George see the full force of his fathers rage? I saw then that George was risking a lot by helping us the way he was. I mentioned this later but all he said was 'it's my destiny too' in a kind of dismissive way.

"So what are we going to do?" Mark asked from behind me.

"My father has arranged to meet Kennedy in a room to the back of the mansion; we'll see what's happening through the window before we do anything else." That explained why we were walking on the grass.

As I walked my heels sank into the damp grass and the neatly trimmed blades brushed across my boots, the cold night air blew against my face and the smell of pollen was air.

"That window?" Will asked as a light turned on ahead of us. George nodded and carried on walking. Feeling slightly out of it, and getting the strong need to behave like the leader and get my ideas across, I motioned to the others to approached the window noiselessly and hold the talking. They nodded and we followed George.

Through the window we could see Baxter and Kennedy, the softly light room, brightened by a cheerful table lamp, looked pleasant and inviting to us stood out in the cold, but Andrews face suggested it was anything but. Leaning on George to get a better look I saw an anxious expression form on Andrews face as Baxter turned to address him, Baxter, who was pacing slowly in front of Andrew, looked grim. Continuously having to duck from view, we knew this wasn't working, and we had to get inside somehow.

"Ouch!" muttered Jess, who was leaning against John, (much to his delight) as Joe stood on her toe trying to get a better look. Will shushed them and we watched as Kennedy began to franticly shake his head, his lips moving furiously in what im sure was a denial of whatever he was being accused of. Baxter slowly shook his head and spoke word we couldn't hear, but it looked like he wasn't buying what Kennedy was selling.

"We need to get in there." George wisped turning to look at me. I nodded, unable to speak; my eyes widened as Baxter punched Kennedy round the face and began shouting at him furiously. Horrified I motioned to the others that we had to get in there, but suddenly George said, with real fear in his voice "Robin!"

Baxter was motioning for his guards, who I had just realised were stood by the door at the other side of the room, to take Kennedy away. Oh no, this was it. Springing into action I broke the window with a boot to the pains as Baxter closed the door behind him. The sick monster wanted to watch as he destroyed his victim.

"Robin, he's taking him to the basement" George said as he jumped through the window, it was clear that the thought had just accrued to him, or maybe he had just put two and two together, remembering where his father had taken other people he had 'disagreed' with.

"Lead the way." I said as everyone else made it through the window, fear now rising in my chest.

We ran down the hallways completely unchallenged, no guards, no maids, no Conner. Though we didn't have time to dwell on this, a man's life was potentially at risk.

"Down here." George instructed as we came across the basement staircase.

Running down another hallway we were met by a thick, locked wooden door, and I was reminded of the warehouse where Baxter had held Wendy, I regret to say that this time, the ending wasn't quite as happy.

George swore as he tried the handle with little luck, I was sickened to hear pleading from the other side of the door.

"Will?" I asked as my stomach turned, I hoped Will, who had recently taken to carpentry while working as an apprentice builder, could do something to help.

"Let me take a look at it." Said Will his tone completely contradicting his calm words, he was clearly sickened as well.

Banging accompanied the shouting in the room behind the door, as Will inspected the door.

"Its thick, very thick" he said solemnly "too thick to kick down but…" he said taking out a single arrow, but his face dropped as he noticed the door opened inwards and the hinges were on the other side of the door "oh."

I looked at the others, lost for what to do, scream ringing in my ears as Kennedy pleaded urgently for his life.

"You deserve everything that's coming to you! Nobody, NOBODY! Crosses Robert Baxter!" Baxter shouted madly, a loud bang followed his words.

George, suddenly overcome with rage began desperately banging on the thick wood, tears of fury glistening in his cool blue eyes. The rest of us stood there helpless, there was absolutely nothing we could do, and it was the worst feeling in the world, being helpless.

"Let me in!" George shouted tearfully banging on the door to no response. A blood curtailing scream issued from the locked room and George stopped banging as the room behind the door fell silent. I felt sick; he had actually done it, the others horror stricken faces mirrored my own. Mark looked like he might through up, Jess and Joe could only blink, the situation too overpowering, Will, Jack and John's faces were lost of all colour. George stood there, his head resting against the wood of the door, shaking his head. He hadn't believed it either, that's his father would acutely kill someone, and it was clear from his face that he had hoped it wouldn't come to this, that it wouldn't be true.

"George." I said softly, gently placing my hand on his shoulder. Completely lost for words, but what could I say? A man had potentially just died in the room behind us, at the hands of his father. There was nothing I could say to that, but I desperately wanted to offer some sort of comfort to him, to ease his suffering, but it was hard, with so many questions running through my head, it was hard to focus, what had just happened?

George turned slowly to face me, he opened his mouth to speak but didn't get a chance to say what he wanted, as a loud alarm suddenly sounded. From the top of the stairs a little way down the corridor, we could hear the guards, who were mysteriously absent earlier, shouting.

"…The window was smashed, what if it's Hood? Oh the boss'll flip!"

Quickened footsteps told us the guards had left the top of the stairs, and noises behind the door alerted us to unwelcome fact that someone was approaching the door.

"Robin we gotta go!" Will said the others nodding in agreement, I turned to George and said.

"George?" the alarm bell still sounding out, we had to get out of here before the guards found us, or worse Baxter opened the door. But George just stood there, looking wounded, staring, once again, blankly ahead.

"Just go" I told the others as they looked at me questioningly "we'll join you in a minuet, get the van ready."

They looked sceptical for a moment but as the footsteps grew closer behind the door, they knew they had little choice.

"We will." Said Jack taking Will by the arm and leading the way back up the stairs, they broke out into a run. Even in the tense situation we had found ourselves in it was impossible to miss Will's expression. A mixture of surprise and joy transformed his features, which had been scrunched in worry seconds before, at Jack's gentle touch. The others on their way to safety I turned to George.

"C'mon you" I said taking hold of his arm and pulling him from the door "we need to get out of here, imagine what your father will do if he finds you here."

George reluctantly allowed himself to be pulled away from the door, lost in his own world. But at the mention of his father his expression darkened, and he looked back to the door.

"What you think he'll get rid of me too?" he asked, not really talking to me, simply expressing his rage. I saw to look that passed across his face, I didn't like it.

"Don't even think it!" I said realising his intentions as he tried to free himself from my grasp. "No come on."

I pulled him to the foot of the stairs, he resisted all the way. I looked on in fear as the handle of the door was pushed down; Baxter was coming to see what the commotion was. I wasn't a coward or anything; I mean at this moment there is nothing I would want more than to make Baxter pay, but im not stupid either. Anxious for there to be no more blood shed tonight, I just wanted to get everyone out safely; for once I was listening to my head instead of my heart.

"George." I pleaded looking into his deep eyes, something behind them softened, his expression changed and three things happened simultaneously, George took my hand, and began to run up the stairs, and Baxter opened the door.

"HOOD!" He shouted watching as we raced up the stairs "Get her, get her now!" he ordered his guards. As they lumbered after us up the stairs, George and I listened to their heavy footsteps, we could out run them easy.

The way out was no where near as simple as the way in. the window we had entered through was no longer an option, they would expect us to go back that way, and it wasn't like we could just use the front door either. And the sudden boost in security, didn't help matters none. Several times George and I nearly collided with Baxter's thick headed thugs, narrowly avoiding capture. But I suppose sooner or later our luck had to run out, as we rounded a corner franticly searching for an exit, we came face to face with an old friend.

"Hello Hood" Conner sneered blocking the corridor "Miss me?"

"Long time no see." I commented stiffly, this wasn't going well, two thugs rounded the corner after us blocking off all hope of an exit.

George looked franticly from Conner to the thugs and then to the wall to his left, where I noticed there was an open window. He turned to me, looked me straight in the eyes and asked.

"Trust me." And held out his hand.

I didn't like this, I wasn't used to feeling so helpless, im usaly in control of my own life, it was strange George taking the lead. And to be honest I didn't fancy jumping out of a window, and if it had been anyone else I would have refused point blank, but it wasn't anyone else, it was George. I trusted him with my life completely, so I grabbed his hand and held my breath as we jumped out of the open window.

The fall took less time than I had expected, primarily because we had jumped from the ground floor window, and there wasn't much jumping involved. Sat on my backside in the wet grass I released my breath and turned angrily to George.

"You knew that didn't you?" running up the basement stairs had disorientated me and I had forgotten where we were. George just smiled at me and took my hand again and pulled me to my feet as Conner stuck his head out of the window and shouted.

"Get after them!"

We ran down the lawn, although I was still fuming slightly, I can't believe he let me think we were jumping from the second floor. I was relieved to see George had shaken off his earlier mood and was back to his playful self, or so it seemed. The gates came into view and unfortunately so did several guards running down the front steps towards us.

"This way." I said, regaining some authority and dragging George away from the path and carrying on down the grass. We could here shouting behind us as the guards chased after us but as we propelled down the garden the wind in our hair blowing back our hoods. We ran through the gates and were met by blinding headlights, John swung the van in front of us and Jack flung open the back door as Jess shouted.

"Get in!"

We didn't need telling twice and collapsed into the back of the van with the others and heaved a sigh of relief. The guards stood at the gate behind us shacking their fists angrily at us, as that was all they could do, not having immediate access to a car themselves and John's licence plate removed for the time being.

"You guys ok?" Will asked from the front passenger seat, he looked worried.

I smiled at him reassuringly, still trying to catch my breath. Jack looked us both up and down critically looking for injury, declaring we were both well everyone calmed down.

"That jump was something ha?" asked George still breathless at my side.

I through him a look indicating that I didn't find it funny, though I was glad to seen him smiling. He would stay with us for a little while longer and when suspicion had died down again would drop him back of at the mansion. As we drove along in silence now, I wondered what could possibly happen next.


	12. Blame

Chapter twelve

Hudson farm

Yawning I opened the door to the farm house where I lived, wow it really was unbelievable how tired I was, last nights operation had taken a lot more out of us than we could have ever imagined. Not just physically, though we were exhausted in that sense too, but mentally as well. There is not much that could prepare you for witnessing murder. It had all happened so fast, finding out Andrew Kennedy was in danger, rushing to help him, breaking in, what happened on the other side of the door… it was definitely an experience none of us were taking lightly, guilt and remorse lay heavy on our shoulders, we had never experienced this before. Everyone we ever intended to save, was that, saved, it was a terrible feeling knowing we had failed someone.

My poor state hadn't been helped either, when I visited Sherwood house to collect our post. Mr Jacubs had been holding it for us, and every now and again one of us would call by to see if anything of interest had come. Today it had been my turn, and I had gotten off of the bus in a relatively calm frame of mind, which didn't last long after crossing the threshold of the building, I can tell you that. My head full of last night I knocked on Jacubs door, not expecting to be greeted by the last person I wanted or needed to see right then.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Adam dumbly as he stood there regarding me with a stupid grin as he answered the door.

"Err I work here." He replied the grin not wavering from his face. He replied as if I should know that already, I did of course, thanks to Mark and his hidden camera I had, had the best seat in the house to watch him worm his way into getting the job. But he didn't know that, and I was still half asleep, with my brain not yet functioning properly I had not expected to see him there.

"Fine" I said not wanting to talk to him "just move so I can get past you."

He blocked my way, taking up pretty much the whole door way with his hulking form and leaning one hands against the door frame, the other behind his back, in a kind of butler-ish way .

"And why should I do that?" he asked leaning forward slightly, still blocking my way.

"Because." I said simply, I really didn't want to talk to him. "Because I said so."

"That's not an answer, why should I let you in?" he said, his dark eyes staring at me sternly, his face twisted by the smirk he wore.

"Look" I said getting frustrated and trying to doge past him, my hair swinging in effort "just let me talk to Mr Jacubs."

"No can do" said Adam laughing cruelly at my efforts to pass him "he's out right now, and im in charge."

"Huh" I laughed, turning to insults as I clearly wasn't getting anywhere "he's a braver man than most."

Ignoring me Adam simply leaned further forward and asked.

"Are you sure, it's not just that you wanted to see me?"

Urgh, I could barely contain my gipping. I had no choice but to set him straight, I couldn't have him going around thinking that!

"Don't flatter yourself" I said surprised I was being so civil; normally I would have said something much worse "I came by to pick up our post."

"Why didn't you just say so in the first place" he said though he made no effort to move. "You really do like making things complicated don't you."

"Cheers" I said my frustration building "but I think you're the one being complicated now! So if you don't mind." I said attempting to pass him again.

"You could have just asked me to get it for you." He said as if I hadn't spoken, who was being difficult now? He just wanted to make me uncomfortable.

I stood there grinding my teeth together, he was going to make me beg, and I wasn't sinking that low. When I didn't answer he just smiled, amused by my anger, and said.

"Come on Robin, its not that hard. Just ask me to get ya post for you."

Frustration building, he really wasn't going to make this easy for me was he; I closed my eyes and counted to ten. Ten seconds later I opened my lids slightly calmer and asked gently.

"Will you go and get my post for me?"

He grinned, seeing how much that had taken from me, and said. "Say please."

"For crying out loud Adam, what are you four?" I asked annoyed at how childish he was being, and embarrassed by how childish he was making me behave.

"Then you don't get ya post, it's your choice. Really I don't care." He said watching me, amused.

"Please" I said spitting the word out of my gritted teeth, hating him intensely.

"That's better." He said taking his hand from behind his back and handing me my letters "Jacubs said you might call round."

I took them from him in silent rage, I had lost the ability to speak, he had known, he had know what I was here for, and still he messed around with me, and practically made me beg for the letters. I was furious.

"Now say thank you." He said his voice faux silk; no where near as soft as George's. I was about to tell him exactly where he could shove his thank you, and make some other comment about where he got off messing me around, when he leaned even further forward. By the time I saw the kind of thank you he had in mind it was too late, and his lips were already on mine, crushing them.

Quickly I pushed him away, and for good measure gave him a slap round the face, I would have preferred it to have been a punch, but I don't think Mr Jacubs would be as civil with us as he had recently become, if I floored his new employee.

"What" I asked my voice horse but disgusted "do you think your doing!?"

"Spoil sport." He simply said, hand held to his cheek but other than that he was no different, the same cocky, arrogant expression on his face and a cruel smile on his lips.

It took every ounce of my self control to turn me away from my smirking ex and head out of the door before I did something I'd probably regret. I was out on the path and slamming the door before he had time to say anything else, still fuming I had headed straight back home.

The thought brought ashamed and angry colour to my cheeks and vomit up my throat. Still holding the unopened letters in my hand I headed into the living room, where my whole family sat gathered around the T.V, hoping to distract myself.

"Hi Robin." My mum smiled from her seat, I perched on the arm of the settee next to my dad, and he smiled up at me from behind his paper, I was glad to report there was no further verbal bashing of my name in this issue.

The weather man on the screen told us that tomorrow would see typical British summer weather, and that the temperature would be mild, as per usual. Next to my grandma on the other sofa, my granddad muttered about the poor weather, and how we never seemed to have any sun. on the floor Alice treated about whether or not Vicky Andrews' birthday party would still be on if it rained, up in the arm chair Joey rolled his eyes and I smiled at all this as the regional news came on.

I wasn't really watching at first, just marvelling at how normal my family were, it was almost funny. But something caught my attention, the tea time news woman, with brown hair cut in a strict bob, was grave faced, and my ears perked up at the sound of a name I recognised.

"…Mr Kennedy was found dead in his Park Avenue home at nine o'clock this morning, when a concerned neighbour rang the police. Miss Jones had become concerned when Mr Kennedy had not left for work that morning at Baxter Industries, and would not answer his phone. A spokes person from Baxter Industries confirmed earlier that Mr Kennedy had not shown up for work.

"Mr Kennedy was found with many severe wounds to his body, which police suspect were caused by repeated clubbing with a wooden object. Police working on the case urge witnesses to come forward, especially anyone who might have some information on the weapon that killed Mr Kennedy which has been identified as a single arrow. In other news…"

The room was silent; everyone sat staring at the screen, gawping, blinking. What? I thought, what had just happened? He wouldn't, he couldn't, he had. Baxter had twisted the story, of course he would, and he needed to explain his employee and business partner's death somehow. The news reader didn't need to say it, it was implied, we all knew who was taking the blame for Mr Kennedy's death, and so did the whole town.

My phone ran in my pocket, I didn't need to check my caller ID I knew the ring tone, The Sugarbabes Denial.

"George?" I asked answering the phone and running to the kitchen, I couldn't stand to be in the room anymore, not with my family all thinking the same as everyone else, that I was a murderer.

"Are you watching the news?" he asked, his voice raged and frustrated.

"Yes." I breathed unable to say anymore, what could I say?

"Oh Robin" said George sensing my upset and softening is voice "im so sorry."

"Its ok." I said, stumbling over my words, I grabbed the kitchen top for support, trying to get my head round what was happening.

"Robin, do you need me there?" he asked, worry thick in his voice, he wanted to help me. That was sweet.

"No am fine" I lied, I needed to figure this out "so it looks like were murder suspects."

"I know, they didn't say it but its obvious that's what they ment, who else runs around town with a bow and arrow." He said, his soft voice had an edge to it now as he thought about what his father had done.

"Humm." I said, feeling slightly ill.

"Im sorry Robin, I'll shut up now." He replied at my obvious upset, I didn't want him to stop talking though, strangely he made me feel better, and I had to work this out.

"It's ok George, really" I said, wanting to reassure him it wasn't him that was bothering me "it's just… murder…I." I couldn't speak, everyone in town would believe it, it was obvious now, all those newspaper articles, they had just been a warm up, for this.

"We need to talk to the others" he said matter of factly, knowing I was struggling with this "their sure to know by now."

As if taking its cue, my phone vibrated in my hand telling me I had another incoming call.

"Speaking of which." I managed to say, my voice still shaky.

"I'll let you talk to the others" he said gently, trying to hide his anger from me "I'll see what I can find out, unless you want me to come over there?"

"No, am fine, honest" I said, it was going to be hard enough talking to the others, never mind having him here, slowly, I could feel the numbness being replaced by anger "I'll see you later kay?"

"See you later." He agreed, I could tell as much as he wanted to comfort me, he wanted to get to the bottom of this, and make his father pay as much as I did.

I hung up and immediately my phone began to ring again, it was Will. With one glance towards my still frozen living room I pressed the answer button with much more force than really necessary and said.

"Will, tell me you just saw that!"

Author note: as always reviews are welcome, please don't hold back about giving constructive criticism where it's necessary. Please take my new poll as well. xxxx


	13. The letter

Chapter thirteen

Hudson farm

Sick to the stomach I crossed the room after speaking to the last of my friends, it was decided that we would meet later, to discus what best to do next. I could have told them right there and then what the best thing to do was; get down to Baxter mansion on make Baxter regret the day he inherited this town from his father. My anger boiled over, I longed to take it out on something, and the closest things to me were the letters on the kitchen side. Viciously flicking through the post I'd collected earlier, electric bill, gas bill, technology magazine addressed to Mark, I stopped as I stared at the return address on one, 64 Park Avenue, Andrew Kennedys address. I ripped open the envelope and read the loopy cursive of the handwritten letter.

_Dear Robin Hood_

_I have no idea if this letter will find you, but it is the only lead I have to your whereabouts, after the attention Baxter gave your residence last month, it was the only conclusion I could draw. I am writing to you because I have little other choice, I fear my days are numbered and now beg you to find somewhere in your heart, the compassion to help me in my hour of need. Working alongside Baxter I have learnt much of your charitable exploits and hope that you will take on my cause._

_I have suffered Baxter a great insult by withdrawing my part in his Sell out project and wanting no more to do with him, I know that he will not take kindly to this, but I do not ask for you to save my life, I know I must now face the consequences of my actions, and am glad I made the choice I made. I do only ask of you that you watch over my daughters, I fear that Baxter may try to harm them because of my territory, and can not bear the thought of them suffering because of me. I also write to do you a favour, I want what you want, to see Baxter out of power and Locksdale freed from his dictatorship, and I offer you this advice, you are not alone, there R others._

_Yours faithfully_

_Andrew Kennedy_

_I stood still, all my_ anger draining from me, when had this been sent? The date on the corner read August 10th, one week ago. He had tried to contact us, and it had been too late. My mum, worried as usual, stuck her head round the door.

"Robin, are you ok?" she asked me. Quickly I hid the letter behind my back and forced a smile.

"Im fine mum." I replied, the numbness returning.

"Well its just, you looked so shocked back in the living room, and your really pale" my free hand flew to my cheeks at her words "are you sure everything's fine."

No, everything's not fine, I wanted to shout, clinging to my last strands of anger as the numbness enveloped me. Nothing's fine, my life couldn't get anymore complicated if it tried, I have no free time in-between working my ass of more some slave driver of a boss, avoiding coming into any contact with my pushy ex and trying to save the poor of Locksdale and bring down Robert Baxter! I am Robin Hood for crying out load, and now on top of all of that me and my friends are being accused of murdering someone, and I have a letter addressed to us from him in my hand. Oh and did I mention, you and dad were right about George, I do like him as more than a friend, but where can it possibly go? He is the son of my nemesis and the next Baxter in line for the town after his father. I wanted to scream but of course I couldn't, not only because I was now so numb I could barely think let alone talk, but because my mum didn't deserve to be yelled at, it wasn't her fault.

"Im fine." I repeated forcing another smile. She looked sceptical but knew I wanted to be alone, and left.

I stared down at the letter in my hand, what next?


	14. Solution

Chapter fourteen

The apartment

I sat there on one of Matt's sofas lost in my thoughts, I couldn't bring myself to pay too close attention to the argument going on around me, but I got the basic idea. Will, John and Joe (who was involved in the conversation via webcam) didn't want Baxter to get away with murder and pining it on us, and thought we should do something about it, something to make him pay. Where as Jack, Mark and Jess (who was sat next to her brother) disagreed, there was a better way to go about it they argued, we didn't need to sink to Baxter's level, or something like that.

"The whole town's gunna hate us, that is if they don't already" Will argued "he can't get away with that."

"This isn't a popularity contest Will, were supposed to be helping people, that's the most important thing!" Jack argued back, that stopped Will in his tracks and he stood there for a few seconds not sure of what to say, his expression somewhere between frustration and admiration, as he regarded his talented opponent. Joe was quick to think of a response and leaned further into the camera shot and spoke into the microphone.

"Yeah but it's a hec of a lot easier helping people when they actually like you. if they don't trust us, we can't help them." He said, and Jess rolled her eyes next to him.

"Oh come on" she said "people here are desperate; if they need our help in the first place they're not exactly going to turn it down."

"Baxter's just raised the town tax again, it's much higher than anyone can afford." Jack added, her expression grim, everyone was struggling, including us.

"That's exactly why Baxter needs to be stopped now!" Joe shouted from the laptop raising his fists into the air, Jess slapped him round the head.

"Oh grow up Joe; you just like a good fight." She said.

"He's right; we knew it would come to this someday, why not sooner rather than later." Will said, his voice was strong though he looked at Jack pleadingly, he knew she wouldn't like it.

"But to actually kill him…" Jack trailed of shuddering.

"There's got to be another way" Mark said "what if we could just get him out of power, put someone else in charge."

"Gawd Mark; where have you been living the past hundred years?" Will snapped turning on his friend "as long as there are Baxter's in this town they'll find some way of running it, it's genetic!" he said but then looked sheepish and glanced at me apologetically. George wasn't here yet, though I wished he was, someone who could talk some sense into this lot for me, I was too numb still to even think about it.

"That doesn't justify murder Will and you know it." Mark replied, hurt slightly by Will's words but trying not to show it.

"Well why don't we ask Baxter what justifies murder, he'll have plenty to say on the subject." Will snapped again.

"Ease up on him Will, it's not his fault." Jhon said protecting his friend. Will looked very much like he would have liked to ask John whose side he was on, but knew Mark was right and turned to Mark again and said.

"Sorry mate."

"S'okay." Mark replied from where he stood messing with the angle of the webcam.

"Im just so angry right now, it's just not fair!" he said it was clear this was bothering him the most out of all of us "he's gunna get away with it!"

Standing up Jack slowly walked to Will and gently place a hand on his shoulder; she looked up at him and said softly.

"We know, and it's bothering us too. But he's not going to get away with this." He smiled back at her and nodded simply. On the computer screen Jess was grinning and it was Joe's turn to role his eyes.

"Oh brother." He complained.

"So what are we going to do then?" John asked.

I thought, what were we going to do? We couldn't kill Baxter like Will was suggesting, but we couldn't just ignore this. I felt the paper in my pocket wrinkle against my leg as I leaned forward; suddenly I knew what to do.

"Wait for George I guess" Will said admitting defeat, on the laptop screen Joe moaned 'boring' which earned him another slap round the head from his sister "the only thing we can do." Will finished.

Waking slightly from my dreamlike state, which had taken over my body since I first opening the letter, and took the crumpled paper from my pocket.

"Read this." I instructed Mark, the room quietened at the sound of my voice, it was the first time I'd used it since my greeting earlier. Complying Mark read Kennedy's letter aloud, the same blank expressions I had worn earlier appeared on my friends faces as Mark read the dead man's letter.

"He tried to contact us…"Jack said, reacting similarly to me, we hadn't got to him in time.

"And we missed it." Will said finishing her sentence. I nodded not sure what to say, letting the gravity of the letter sink in.

Mark's reaction was the most surprising, I had watched his face while he read and for the most part he had reacted exactly the same as everyone else. Until he got to the end of the letter, where his brow had knitted together in confusion and even after he finished reading, he sat there looking at the page.

"I don't understand." He said.

"I know mate" Will said softly "none of us do."

"No I get that, I mean this" he said pointing to the page again "I don't understand this."

Intrigued I moved to his side and stared at where he pointed on the page, confused.

"The R" he said after seeing mine and everyone else's perplexed expression "he says 'you R not alone'."

He then looked at us expectantly but our expressions didn't change, I had noticed the R as well, in the otherwise perfectly written letter, there was this one error.

"It's not grammatically correct, it's not proper English." He offered hoping this would prompt our minds into work.

"Mark" Jack said softly "he knew what Baxter had in store for him and was writing for help; I don't think he would have been too bothered about bad grammar, its just one mistake and since when did you become the language police?"

Mark sighed, they still didn't see, but my mind was working on the right lines.

"He was educated." I said, understanding.

"What?" John asked exasperated.

"Exactly" Mark replied smiling at me "he was educated, look at his hand writing, the grammar, the writing style. He was brought up by a posh family and strictly taught, it was important to them, he wouldn't make that mistake."

"So you think…" Will said cottoning on.

"It's a hidden message." Mark finished.

"Its annoying when you guys do that." Joe commented, talking about our sudden brainstorm. It was effective though, we were right it was a message it had to be, but what did it mean.

"What's it mean?" John said voicing my thoughts. For a moment every stared at the beautifully written R on the page (well everyone except Joe and Jess), stumped for an explanation to John question, what did it mean? Before anyone could give a suggestion or admit defeat, George burst through the door.

"I have bad news." He panted; it was obvious he had run the whole way here. I sighed, I wasn't sure how much more bad news I could take today.

"My fathers not finished yet, with Mr Kennedy." He said still gasping, I think I saw where this conversation was going "he's going after his kids, he wants to make him suffer from beyond the grave!" even through George's tired panting it was hard to miss the disgust in his voice.

"We know." I said as Mark handed me the letter and I gave it to George, the room was silent as he read.

"Oh." Was about all George could manage, and oddly it about summed things up, that one word. Even stranger still was how what George's voice did to change that one word in my ears, normally a bland, definition less word now spoke in volumes and brought a smile to my face, or maybe it was just having George in the room with me.

"Seems like Mr Kennedy knew what he was doing, well he knew my father anyway." George said handing the sheet back to me.

"What now?" Jhon asked.

"We do what Mr Kennedy asked us to do, we protect his daughters" I said, the numbness now completely out of my system "and we carry on, business as usual, Baxter's not going to stop us from helping people." I said grinning at Jack, she smiled back.

"The drop off?" Mark asked.

"We'll split up, half of us will do the drop off the others will watch the Kennedy girls" I replied "Who wants what?"

The groups really shouldn't have surprised me; it was much the same as from the argument earlier. Jack, Jess and Mark volunteered to do the drop off, and John and Will wanted to come on the job. Much to his upset, Joe had been sent to the drop offs with the girls and Mark, and George and I were going with Will and John. We would all be in radio contact at all times and Mark would keep an eye on us on his laptop in-between houses.

"Sorted then." I said watching as the sun set on this complicated day, which was sure to turn into just as much of a difficult night.

"Sorted." George echoed at my side as we set off into the night.


	15. Old friends

Chapter fifteen

Harrington Close

"Yawn!" Joe moaned in my earpiece. I rolled my eyes from my perch on the roof of number five Harrington Close, where lived Kennedy's ex-wife and his two daughters.

"Joe" I whispered from my crouching position "if you don't stop winging I'll get Mark to shut off your mic, so the rest of us don't have to listen to it."

Besides me John, who was now laughing silently, was putting away the grappling hook we had used to get up here and shaking his head at Joe's complaining.

"Just coz ya wish you was here mate." John said.

"I do!" Joe replied "I do wish I was there, where the action is. But instead im here on bloody charity duty!"

"There's more to being part of Robin Hood's gang than just action you know" Jack scolded down the earpiece "you actually have to HELP people."

"Yeah" Will whispered in agreement "and besides there's not exactly going to be much action tonight, were just babysitting a couple of lasses, nothing exciting."

"Ha! Speak for yourself, you might not think protecting a couple of fit lasses in expensive silk pyjamas is exciting but I on the other hand think that's plenty of action…" it was obvious Joe wanted to say more but the sharp 'ouch' that replaced his words told us he'd gotten a clip round the ear for that last comment, from his sister.

John was now openly sniggering, and I had to smile, my friends laugh was so infectious. In my ear I could hear Joe and Jess squabbling but I didn't pay much attention to it, George had shuffled to the edge of the roof and was carefully peeking over. Reaching his side I heard a car door slam shut.

"She's leaving." George said meaning Clarissa, Kennedy's ex-wife. I checked the watch on my wrist, eleven o'clock.

"It's a little late for her to be going out isn't it? It's Tuesday night, she'll have work tomorrow." I whispered as the car drove off.

"Clarissa found the divorce hard" George replied in a quiet voice, he had been close to the Kennedy's growing up, his father and their father working together and everything "and she likes her drink" George offered as an explanation "although they were parted, Andrew wouldn't have wanted to see her get hurt, we should probably keep an eye on her."

"Mark can you keep tabs on Clarissa Kennedy?" I asked, speaking quietly into the mic.

"Sure can" Mark replied and the sound of the keys on his laptop followed his words "she's headed down Bridge street, towards The Swallows I think." The Swallows was a large, slightly run down pub in the south side, famous for its late night brawls and visits from the police department, it wasn't the sort of place you'd expect a rich ex-wife of a former Baxter industries employee to go.

"Thanks Mark, keep an eye on her ok?" I said in hushed tones.

"Will do." He replied.

"Cheers mate." George added. At his words John and Will exchanged mock shocked glances and George smiled, he was fitting into 'common' lifestyles quite nicely.

"Huh?" Mark asked in a confused tone and seven sets of voices asked.

"What?"

"Robin, you guys need to secure the house" Mark replied the confused tone not leaving his voice "im picking up an unwelcome guest on my screens."

"How many?" George asked.

"Just the one, as far as I can tell." Mark replied, the tapping of keys accompanying his words.

"Who is it?" Will asked suddenly at my other side.

"I can't tell it's too dark and my cameras aren't getting a clear picture. You'd best be careful." Mark said.

"Will do Mark." I replied, following my words I held a finger to my lips signalling to the others no more talking. After this I pointed at both John and Will and then the south and east walls of the house and then myself and George and the north and west sides, we would be able to scan more ground this way. I picked up a set of binoculars and headed over to the west wall, knowing everyone else would be doing the same I looked through the binoculars and surveyed the area.

"He's coming up the drive now." Mark said sounding confused again, probably because of the intruders obvious, full view approach. I signalled for everyone to hold there positions; he might just be a distraction, when the intruder came into view on the driveway on the north side George motioned to stop him. I shook my head at him, we waited.

I needed to asses what this guy was up to before I made any rash decisions. Abandoning the west side my binoculars found the strange man, short and of average build this man was clearly not the norm for a squad member, dressed in black and the shadows hiding his face I couldn't work out who he was, whether he was friend or foe.

The stranger headed up the steps off the grand house and George looked at me pleadingly, he opened his mouth to speak but he had me with the look alone, I would do anything for George when he made that face. And besides I knew it couldn't be helped, we couldn't just let this guy walk right by us; we owed Kennedy the safety of his daughters. So before George could say what he wanted to say, I had tossed aside my binoculars and pulled down my mask, the others took that as all the signal they needed and soon copied me and followed as I walked to George's side on the north wall. The grand front doors whined as they were opened and the stranger was soon inside closing them behind him. Abandoning the watch for further threats, I pressed my finger against my ear piece and said.

"Were going in." to Mark and the others, before grabbing hold of the drain pipe that ran around the roof and lowering myself onto the window ledge, I pushed open the unlocked windows and jumped through the window landing on the carpet with a soft thud.

I found myself, not in a spare room as I had thought, but a large bedroom, a queen size four poster with silk curtains took up a lot of the grand space in the centre of the room, to the right was an open walk-in wardrobe revealing rails and rails of expensive clothes. The walls, in the soft glow of a bed side lamp, were baby pink, the doors, skirting boards and carpet were white and the over all appearance of the room screamed expense and taste. Joe had been wrong in his assumptions; the girl whose room this was wasn't in bed in her silk pyjamas, though she wasn't wearing much more than that. A young red headed girl, a little younger than us, sat at a vanity on the left hand side of the room staring at me, mascara wand frozen in her raised hand. She wore a pale strappy top on her upper half that left little to the imagination although this girl could be little over fifteen; demine shorts stopping way, way before the knees showed off her thin legs. She was not alone in the room either, leaning against the far wall, in what Im sure was inpatients before I showed up, was a raven haired girl about our age, who was wearing little other than the scowl on her face. A tight black dress clung to her curvy form and screamed cleavage, cleavage, cleavage. They were clearly on their way out.

Swinging through the window George landed beside me, straitening up he looked around him.

"Steph?" he asked confusion viable behind his mask.

She miserable girl with raven hair's face transformed upon hearing him speak. The red head at the vanity however, wore the same expression; she looked from the raven haired tottey to George in confusion.

"George?" the miserable girl asked and to my immense surprise Gorge lowered his hood and pulled off his mask.

"Yep." He replied smiling warmly at the two girls. Ok I was confused, I knew that George knew these girls but, what was that all about, surely they knew tell his father as well, and as soon as they realised who George really was they'd run and tell him, what was he doing?

"Oh my Gawd George, you scared us half to death" the raven tottey said holding her hand to her heart and smiling. She hadn't looked afraid, more like bitchy "its not that it's not great to see you again, because it is. But what are you doing here?" she addressed the last bit to me with a scowl; she was looking over my body shape and stance, deciding I was female and therefore a threat.

"Someone has broken into your house." I replied with a scowl of my own, I wasn't going to take looks THAT loathsome laying down. George oblivious to all this said.

"So it's not safe hear for you both." And drew his bow, and then took a protective stance and gently pushed Stephanie, who had come to stand in front of him, behind his back and beside her sister. I however remained still; I was being to question the positives of helping these two.

Suddenly there was the sound of ruckus behind the door, and John and Will dragged in the struggling stranger. In spite of myself I drew my bow and prepared my defence.

"Peter!" the sitting girl screamed and ran to the restrained boys side, her red locks flying.

"Peter?" I asked lowering my bow slightly.

"My boyfriend." She explained clinging to the boy's chest despite John and Will, who were still restraining the boy.

"Let him go." I said lowering my bow; he was no danger to us. John and Will complied and I looked at the now straightened Peter wondering how the boys could have ever thought him a threat, with his soft blond hair curing to his face, glowing slightly in the low light, he looked as if to have a halo and was the very picture of innocence, though apparently appearances can be misleading as Stephanie explained.

"We were waiting for Peter so we could go out." She gestured to her outfit and George's gaze followed, I sighed, boys.

"You know you're too young for any of that Steph." George scolded her.

"Im sixteen George, im not a baby." She replied rolling her eyes, though she was smiling still.

"You might be sixteen but you're still not old enough to be going out, and what about your sister? Claire definitely isn't old enough." George replied his face serious and firm. Claire muttered something about being fifteen, though it was hard to hear with her face buried in Peter's chest.

"If you say so George." Stephanie replied flicking her long hair over her shoulder and looking at George innocently only her eyes, that glistened playfully, gave away her tarty charade.

"Will someone please explain to me what's going on here?" Peter asked, eyeing Will and Jhon suspiciously despite their apologetic looks.

"George." I said, my voice blank, he could field this one. I didn't fancy explaining this situation to the two footballer's wives over there, especially when all I wanted to do was go back the way I came and leave the two WAGS to fend for themselves.

"Yes George, what's all this about anyway?" Stephanie asked.

"Well… this is going to be hard for you to believe so you'll have to bare with us, ok? Ermm how to word this? Right ok…" George stuttered trying to find the words.

"Baxter wants you dead." I said point blankly, I didn't have the patients for this girl, her sister I could manage, but not she of only two facial expressions.

"I wouldn't have put it quite like that…" George started throwing me a look, to witch I just shrugged, he was going to explain but was cut across by a scared Claire.

"W…w…what? What have we done?" She said clearly frightened.

"Its not so much you" George said trying to repair the damage I caused "as your father."

"Daddy? What's this got to do with our dad?" Claire asked now close to hysterics.

"It's complicated" George tried to explain "but you have a right to know" George took a deep breath, closed his eyes and spoke the words that had been causing him so much pain "my father killed your dad."

Silence greeted George's words and the scowl, once again, was upon Stephanie's face. Clair stood in Peter's arms shock decorating her delicate features.

"I don't get where you're trying to go with this George, or what kind of sick joke this is" she said her voice shaking "that scum bag, of a scoundrel Hood killed our dad."

"Really?" I asked in faux surprise and shock "I think I would remember something like that." I said probably a little too coldly, but she really was annoying me.

Recognition and realisation spread across Stephanie's face, she turned to look at me and said.

"You!?" anger shook her voice and I realised I was wrong… she did have more than two facial expressions; the third was pure murderous rage. George saw this and immediately stepped in front of me shielding me from Stephanie but blocking her from my view.

"Steph." He said trying to calm her down, I realised I had perhaps made a mistake.

"Its her George, its HER, she's Hood" she spat fury colouring her words, when George held his position in front of me she carried on "but of course you knew that didn't you!? You knew your girlfriend here was bloody Robin Hood! You knew she killed my dad!"

"Now Steph, if you'd just let me explain you'll see Robin had nothing to do with your dad's death, in fact she came to help me try and save him." George said, and I noticed, despite my current position, that he hadn't exactly denied Stephanie's girlfriend accusation. Jhon and Will were suddenly at George's side, I however couldn't see the danger, I could take this little doll out easily. Even though Jhon and Will were beside him, George didn't relax his defensive position.

"Argh!" she screamed and there was a smashing sound, I looked behind me to see the broken pieces of a vase shimmer down the wall behind me onto the floor. Now I saw the reason behind George's protective position, no one had mentioned to me she was a temperamental lunatic! She began throwing everything she could get her hands on at the wall behind us, hoping some stray pieces might fly off and hit me, screaming something about betrayal at George.

"George" I said tiring of little miss Stephanie's tantrum "tell her the rest please."

"Look Steph, calm down please, I'll explain everything…" she wouldn't let him finish, screeching took a perfume bottle from the vanity and threw it towards George, she wouldn't hit him with it of course, the bottle smashed at his feet and I was soundly overwhelmed by the sticky sweetness of the expensive overpowering fragrance. Coughing slightly I realised this wasn't getting us anywhere; we weren't going to fulfil Kennedy's wish like this.

"Traitor! How could you work for HER?!" What about your father, oh I'll bet he will be just thrilled to learn about your new buddies!" she yelled, those final words pushed me into action; no one threatened George like that.

"Why do I get involved in these kind of things?" I quietly asked myself and then stepped out from behind George's protection, squeezed past John who stood to my right and walked into full view of Stephanie. Unlike me, Stephanie stood alone in front of the vanity, her sister and Peter stood over by the door looking on from a safe distance. Jhon stiffened as I passed him, he wouldn't stop me, he knew me well enough to trust me, it was this new girl he didn't trust and he didn't like the idea of me walking into her vase firing line. I smiled at him reassuringly, laughing slightly at there unnecessary concern.

"Robin." Will warned big brotherly.

"Don't." George said, but I ignored them both and spoke.

"Stephanie" I said softly, drawing her attention away from George, I would have to set this girl straight "all I ask is that you hear me out, just let me say my bit and if you still feel like ripping my head off, we'll leave." I was unsure where the sudden burst of patients on my part had come from, I suppose I sympathised with her a little, I mean her dad had just been murdered for crying out loud, I knew how I would react. Not that, that gave her a reason to be a flirtatious, stuck up, psychopathic bitch. She didn't reply and simply looked at me scowling; I took this as my cue to carry on.

"Yesterday night" oh my gawd it was only yesterday "George called me and my friends to say that he was worried because his father had invited a business friend to the house at a late hour and George had heard his dad muttering heatedly about this man all day" I paused to see if she was following, she asked no questions so I carried on "George said that this kind of thing had happened before and it had ended very badly for the men before. So we headed over to try and save this man, George identified him as we walked up as your father." I stopped, unsure of how much to tell them, I was sure they didn't need to hear about the torturous situation their father had been in before he died. I decided to skate over it, not wanting another tantrum.

"We followed them to the basement, but we…we couldn't get in and, we were too late." I paused again letting my words sink in and allowing myself a breather, it wasn't the easiest of topics to discus, and it had deprived me of restful sleep last night and plagued the back of my mind. "The alarm was set off because someone heard our attempts to get into the basement and we had to run. Baxter saw an opportunity arising as we fled and framed us for the murder" I heard Stephanie mutter 'you' under her breath and tried to shrug it off "its not something any of us took lightly you know, we all feel responsible." I sensed George's gaze drop to the floor as I finished my story.

I looked up at Stephanie and it was clear she didn't believe a word that came out of my mouth, I sighed, this was had work.

"Don't believe me, whatever, I don't really care" I said the softness gone from my voice "but were gunna be around here a lot, whether you like it or not, I keep my promises, and however much it might pain me, im going to keep the one I made to your father today." I said taking the folded letter out of my pocket and threw it to Stephanie, at this action Claire abandoned Peter's arms and ran to her sister's side and read the letter over her shoulder.

Stroking the page slightly Stephanie said sadly.

"Daddy always was a rebel." I looked at her funny for a moment, not sure where this had come from.

"My father was saying something about betrayal?" George prompted as confused as I was. But she just shook her head amused; ignoring us both as she stared at the page, paying no attention to her sisters questions either.

"So, it looks like you'll be protecting me then" she said grinning flirtatiously at George again, she seemed to have found this easy to swallow now, and didn't find it the least bit odd that George's dad would do such a thing, and clearly felt nothing for how it was upsetting George "you always did look after me."

I wasn't pleased with the direction the conversation had turned, trying to steer it away from George and Stephanie's mysterious past, I said "the R in the letter, do you know what it means?"

"Don't you?" she asked her expression and tone blank before turning back to George. I sighed; she wasn't going to help us. I gipped a little as she carried on cooing over George's protection, and was probably too relived when I heard Marks words in my ear.

"Robin!" he said desperately, all four of us stopped to listen "she's on her way home, Clarissa I mean!"

"What, where is she?" George asked him, Stephanie and the others looked confused at us.

"At the gates to the house now." He said franticly.

"Mark, you were ment to be watching her!" I said exasperated.

"I was, she went into The Swallows like I said, but then bloody action man over here" Mark raised his voice and I could hear Joe apologising in the background "decided that because it was a quiet night and we were nearly done, it was a good idea to practice using his grappling hook, he took out two windows in the house we were delivering to!" I sighed and I could hear John and Will sniggering beside me.

"So you guys really need to get out of there, fast." Mark finished.

"We've finished here anyway." I said, at my word Stephanie looked sadly at George and said.

"You're leaving?" not that she cared that the rest of us were going, she just didn't want to see that back of George. Clair returned to Peter's arms and I could have sworn I heard her mutter 'finally' obviously she was tired of the lack of attention.

The crunching sound of car tires on gravel could be heard through the open window.

"Mummy." Clair breathed, suddenly looking worried.

"You need to go!" Stephanie said changing her tune and wiping makeup from her face.

"Wait" I said holding out my arm as the boy's made their way to the window, the noise of a car door being slammed was followed by the sound of the front door creaking "Now."

Will and Jhon exited the window first, climbing back onto the roof to collect our things, behind me I heard Stephanie whispering her goodbye's to George, the sound of footsteps on the stairs, at least that's what I'll say if anyone asked, forced me to grab George's arm and drag him to the window. We climbed onto the roof and were soon followed by Peter, who it was clear was as unwelcome a guest as the rest of us. Using the grappling hook again we descended from the roof carrying our rucksacks', George and I were the last to touch the ground, Will, Jhon and Peter snuck off first so as not to draw too much attention. In the dim light I could make out George's saddened expression, this was hard for him, gently I touched his shoulder and smiled reassuringly at him. He looked up at me in our crouched position and smiled back at me sadly, my heart ached, I wanted so badly to make this easier for him, I hated to see him like this, but what could it do? Upon Will's signal we took off down the garden to the main road, wind blowing gently on our frowning faces, as we tried to make sence of everything


	16. Penelope

Chapter sixteen

Hudson farm

Waking up the following morning, after a night of troubled sleep and nightmares, I rubbed my eyes and cringed at the idea of going into work today. With all that had been going on lately, I had taken the liberty of having a few days off of work to get things done, achem, sick days. I could avoid the irritable task no longer, so bearing in mind that another late wouldn't look too good on my file next to all my sick days, I dragged myself out of bed.

The early morning sounds of quiet chatter and sizzling sausages' greeted me as I opened my bedroom door, dressed in my boring work uniform, heading for the bathroom. My face washed, teeth brushed, hair sorted and minimal make up applied I walked down stairs, drawn by the smell of a fry up. You would think I'd tire of the aroma of a full English, given my dislike for my job at the café, but not my mum's fry up, a rare treat saved for special occasions, meaning it didn't make me gip like the rubbish Mr Jordans served. I had to wonder though, what was the occasion?

"Morning Robin sweetie." My mum said from her station by the cooker.

"Morning love." My dad said dressed in a smart grey suit, sat at the kitchen table trying not to get tomato sauce down his grey and black stripped tie.

"Morning" I replied putting down the handbag I took with me to work and taking my seat at the table "going somewhere nice today?" I asked as my mum placed a plate of food in front of me.

Placing his sandwich back on his plate my dad smiled sadly at me and said "im going to Baxter Industries with Andy" he said wiping his hands on a napkin "he got turned down for another job the other day, he's going to talk to Mr Baxter about some issues they had with…" he looked at me deciding weather or not to carry on, he obviously decided I was too innocent to hear the rest of the conversation as he said "… it doesn't matter, anyway im going with him for moral support."

The black listing, this was clearly what he was talking about. What, Will's dad had been turned down for another job? Despite what my dad seemed to think my ears were not too delicate for this subject. Will had kept me well informed on his dad's situation, I knew all about how much of a difficult time he and his family were having and had been having ever since Baxter black listed Andy from every automobile related occupation in town and the surrounding areas. Many a time I had offered some of the money we acquire to Will, I knew he was no better off than some of the people we delivered to, now trying to live off of one income, not that he ever accepted any money, he said we were to give it to the people who needed it.

"That petty, conniving, worm! dressed to his best in Armani, sitting up in his tower ruling over us all, who does he think he is? He's not the mayor or anything close to that…" my mum muttered cracking eggs open violently into a pan.

"Jane" My dad said simply, trying to hide a smile at how his usual mild mannered wife was talking about the loathed dictator "it'll get sorted, no need to worry."

"I know Mike, I know. But for crying out loud look what he's doing, look what he's doing to us all, to our friends, everyone we know is at his mercy. It's what they all did and always will do!" mum said now angrily whipping a spoon around the pan of beans. I sat there, my fork frozen over my plate, if I hadn't known better my mouth would have been hanging open in shock. My mum, who usually had very little to say about local politics, was ranting about Baxter. I did try however, to not to read too deeply into the comment she made about it's what the Baxter's 'always will do'. My parents loved it when George came round to visit and didn't stop raving about him until hours after he left, my mum was only trying to emphasise her point.

"I know what you mean but Robin…" my dad started to say, but was interrupted by a knock at the door. I didn't need to hear the rest of his sentence, I was sure it was something about how I didn't need to be hearing all of this, and that I was too young to be bothered by it, or something along those lines.

"Andy, how are ya?" Joey greeted warmly answering the door; I abandoned my breakfast having lost my apatite.

"Im alright tar Joey, is your uncle ready for leaving yet?" Andy replied, my heart went out to this dear family friend. The sadness rivalled the strength in his voice and I could tell he was tired of all this and just wanted it to be over, the cheery, laughing voice I had grown up hearing both here and at Will's, sounded as though it might break at any moment, I felt sure my heart would do the same thing as he entered the kitchen.

"I dunno, why don't you come in? I'll have a look." Joey replied, his words were followed by a 'thank you' from Andy and the sound of footsteps in the hall.

"You alright Robin?" Andy asked smiling slightly at the sight of me, though this brought some of the shine back to him, I found it was a smile I could not return.

"Im fine thanks." I replied taking in Andy's worn-out exterior, his normally rich chocolate brown eyes looked hollow, deep purple bags circled his once best feature and they resembled nothing of his son's, who was near enough his clone. He looked gaunt and unfed, and although he was dressed smartly in a black suit, it hung from his once full figure and looked to be several sizes too big.

"Good teh hear" he said smiling genuinely at me "Jane?" he said turning to my mum.

"Im alright" she said taking my plate from me "what about you Andy, who are you Carrie and the kids?"

"Its seven thirty by the way" Joey said coming back into the room after switching of the TV in the room "Robin you'd better get off or you'll be late, old Jordans wont be too pleased if you are." He said turning to me a joking smile on his lips.

"Right then, im off." I said giving my cousin a look for kicking me out, I smiled at my mum who was still frowning at how Andy had managed to avoid her question.

"Mike." Andy said looking at my dad, it was clear they were going to be late for their appointment at Baxter Industries. I knew he wanted to say more, but as I was in the room he would settle for explaining it to my dad on the way, there was a reason behind the concern in his voice which had to do with something more than nerves. They were up and out of the door before I had so much as grabbed my hand bag, I called my good byes to mum and Joey, it was still early and Alice wasn't up yet. Then followed them outside in time to see Andy's car which Will had borrowed on numerous occasions to transport us to various late night destinations- heading off down the lane and out of sight.

I took my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialled Will's number, as I waited for him to answer I felt a shiver go down my spine that had little to do with the temperature, and more to do with the nagging feeling I was being watched. Brushing this off I began to walk up the lane and Will answered.

"What?" he asked, I could hear the grin in his voice as he spoke.

"What, what?" I replied in the mock confused tone our saying required, and smiling slightly "Our dads are going to Baxter Industries?" I asked.

"Yeah" he said and he sounded about as happy with this as I was, which wasn't very "I heard them talking about I yesterday, my dad's hoping he can convince Baxter to take back all the rumours he's been spreading about him and persuade someone to give him a job, he wants your dad there for support." Will sounded sceptical about how far his dad would get in his goal.

"That might not work" I said fully aware they wouldn't get anywhere "do you think we should be there?"

"No, the last thing they need is Robin Hood showing up and ruining things for them. Besides there walking into Baxter Industries in broad day light, the place is bound to be full of people, full of witnesses, im sure they'll be ok." He said I knew he was making sense, though technically not an industry- not since the mines closed anyway- Baxter Industries was teaming with life as it was the office where Baxter plotted and schemed, but also where he worked and made business deals. They were safe there, but I- and from Will's voice im sure him as well- didn't like the idea, it would do them no good going there today.

"Your right, there's not much we can do to stop them now is there?" I said reaching the top of the lane and heading for the bus stop, sigh; I couldn't wait for my provisional.

"Not unless we hijack the car and force them to turn around, there long gone." Will said, from the noise in the background I could tell he'd just gotten to work, hollering builders had a most distinctive sound.

"Yeah, I'll let you go now anyway." I said as I saw my bus rounding the corner and took my purse from my bag.

"Kay, see ya later… oh by the way, George is watching the Kennedy girls tonight." Will replied, I froze.

"What?" I asked testily.

"Stephanie requested it, said she wouldn't feel safe if George didn't take the first watch or some such bull." He said, Will wasn't an idiot he knew how I felt about George- hec he felt the same way about jack- best friends just know these things, but even he knew better than to lie to me when I needed answers.

"Really?" I asked, so this was how she was playing was it? Get George alone, protecting her from his father no less, and then sink her French tipped claws into him. "What else did she say?" I asked as the bus doors swung open.

"George will be on the roof you know, keeping a look out like he's supposed to…" Will attempted to say in some sort of defence, but I was having none of it and cut across him.

"Will, tell me!" I said.

"Alright, she said she wasn't sure what sort of protection you were going to give her and that she trusted George with her life and you don't really need to hear the rest…" Will mumbled. A frustrated bus driver chuntering under his breath about today's youth and every pair of eyes on the bus watched me irritably, not that I noticed, I needed Will to tell me the rest.

"Will don't, tell me what she said." I said but I could hear louder male voices through Will's phone, they didn't sound too happy. Well boo for them, neither did I.

"Sorry Robin, I gotta go." He said hanging up, I took the phone away from my ear and stared at it as if it had just caused me pain, he hung up on me!

"If ya quite ready." The bus driver snapped and I stepped abroad still staring at my phone, argh, I really didn't like Stephanie. I paid my fair and took a seat pondering Will's words, that bitch!

Café Locksley

"Robin!" Mr Jordans exclaimed when I didn't respond, I was stood with my back to him buttering sandwiches, the lunch rush was upon us and Jordans had chosen this time to lecture me. I jumped slightly at his outburst, I had completely tuned out to whatever it was he was saying, and I had little interest in his latest money cut back schemes and stingy portions ideas.

"Why do I employ you?!" he asked me as I turned to face him "all you ever do is wind me up! Are you trying to put me in an early grave, or better yet ruin my business?!"

"No Mr Jordans." I robotically replied, it was nice to know he had his priorities straight wasn't it.

"Oh yeah" he asked folding his arms over his chest, hum, I wondered if it was true what they say, that girls cross their arms left over right, and guys crossed theirs right over left. Jordans proved the theory anyway. "Then what was I just telling you?" what was he just saying? Good question.

"Ermm, give the customers their tea strong so as to save on milk?" I asked shrugging a little; it could have been right. Carrie, who was manning the till, laughed at my words, see, it was possible.

"No!" he said now shouting, drawing the customer's attention, something he routinely scolded me for doing and reaching past me for a slice of buttered bread "the butter" he said waving it in my face and lowering his voice so as not to be heard "I told you to only butter the one side, don't you ever listen." I hadn't been too far off.

"Can I help you?" Carrie asked the next customer, a smile still in her voice. I was glad I was able to make her laugh, especially with all that was going on for her and Andy of late.

"Sorry" I said appalled, but not surprised, by my boss' ridiculous cut backs "I'll remember that in future then shall I?" I said, though I knew I wouldn't, I wasn't tight.

"Humph." Jordans muttered something and walked off leaving us to get on with our work.

"Only butter one side, give me a break." Carrie scoffed and handed the customer his plate with a polite "Hear you go sir."

"Doesn't he just piss you off, I know there's a credit crunch, I know Baxter is STILL raising taxes but seriously there are extremes." I said sorting the next order.

"Speaking of which." Carrie said before turning to the next customer and I turned round in time to see George stood in the doorway. He looked me right in the eyes, so pretending to be collecting cups I crossed the café and cleared the table beside the door.

"Guess who?" he wisped in my ear before joining the cue. I looked confused for a moment but soon saw what he ment, the door flew open again and a tall dark haired teen strode through the door as if, well as if he was Robert Baxter. Adam.

Quickly grabbing the remaining plates and mugs I headed back for the kitchen, just what I needed right now.

"Mr Baxter!" Jordans exclaimed, a few of the regulars looked worried until they spotted George, embarrassed at being addressed so and trying to shrug off Jordans, standing in the cue. "Tell me what can I get for my best and most distinguished customer?" as this was my place of work George had taken to spending abit of time in hear of late, though Jordans claimed it was proof of his business' success.

"It's alright Mr Jordans, Im only in need of a cup of tea." George replied, he still had an audience, and besides he WAS incredibly polite.

"Robin! Get over hear and get Mr Baxter a cup of our finest tea." He said glairing at me leaning against the kitchen doorframe before turning and smiling at George.

"That won't be necessary Mr Jordans, but thank you for the offer. I'll wait my turn; there are a few people in front of me, I'll have to wait for Robin's assistance." He smiled mischievously, eyes only for me. The spectators' loved this, just like they loved George, and began mutter and ooooo.

I knew they were reading too much into what George had said, and I probably should have retorted back with some sort of witty comment, but I couldn't look away from George's crystal blue eyes, dancing like blue fireflies with the mischief he was causing. I managed to look away just to see Jordans' expression-which was priceless by the way- but in doing so caught a glimpse of Adam sat at the back of the room. He was the only one in the room not watching the exchange; he wore an expression of intense distaste, like he found the whole thing revolting, and sat there shaking his head slightly muttering to himself. Argh, what was he doing here?

"Ha-ha, very funny Mr Baxter" Jordans said, deciding the whole thing was a joke, though he didn't find it funny "Robin." He added indicating his request still stood.

"If Mr Baxter wishes?" I said regaining my voice and taking a slight mocking bow in George's direction and the crowds laughed. It would be fun to mess with Jordans.

"Like I said, I'll wait thank you." George said returning the bow, straight faced, which was more than I could say for myself.

"Carrie, see to these customers." Jordans snapped, giving up and heading for his office. Once his door was closed the café erupted in laughter, baring Adam.

A few minuets later George made it to the front of the cue, still grinning.

"Can I have a cup of tea please?" George asked.

"Milk?" asked a grinning Carrie, I took it Will had mentioned George a few times.

"Please." He replied and Carrie handed him his cup.

"Wait, don't you want some sugar?" I asked, not thinking really. George just laughed, I realised at the joke forming in his mind, a few people in the cue sniggered and I blushed ready to bang my head on a wall. George walked away, I didn't realise I was watching him until Carrie snapped me out of it.

"You can go and talk to him you know" she said using the voice my mother had used when I had asked to speak to George alone last week "I can handle these." She said meaning the customers who had entered with George.

I picked up a cloth, just in case, and walked to George's table.

"What's up?" I whispered.

"Nothing, can't I just call in to see you without there being something wrong?" he replied laughter sugar coating his already velvet voice.

Adam scoffed on the table behind us. Ignoring his disrespect I raised an eyebrow at George, there was definitely something he wanted to say to me.

"Well…" he started but was interrupted by Adam.

"What do I have to do to get some service around here?" He asked loudly and rudely.

"You get off your backside and stand in the cue, just like everyone else." I snapped back, bored of Adam already.

"What like Peter Perfect there? Huh." He said making no movement to get up; I turned away from him, used to Adam's comments. George however wasn't best pleased, the look on his face was less than amused, and he didn't appreciate Adam's constant insulting comments. I gave George a look, leave it.

"Peter Perfect, that's funny. Maybe that's why Penelope Pitstop's with him and not one of the other whacky racers." George said back his tone unspiteful and bored.

"George!" I hissed, im not Penelope Pitstop.

"Oh I" Adam said looking from me to George, I didn't need to correct him, it wasn't any of his business, but I knew George didn't need to rumours.

"Adam…" I started but he cut across me.

"Maybe Penelope Pitstop was just on the rebound, and didn't get a better offer." Adam shot back and my mouth dropped open, what! I dumped Adam ages before anything happened with George, what am I saying nothings happened with George, what! I didn't get a chance to speak, George took his turn.

"No I doubt it, her ex would have been a rebound guy in the first place." This was most out of character, George was spitting his words now getting well and truly wound up, all of this was taking place with George's back to Adam, both had clenched fists and scowls. All this over me! What kind of weird alternate universe had I fallen into? Penelope Pitstop?

"Huh, if he was only I rebound guy I'll bet her ex wonders how she kisses people she's serious about." Adam said making a noise. Ok I was blushing now.

"He'd probably have known if he wasn't stupid enough to cheat on her with her friend." George snapped his voice snaking with anger.

"Well maybe be if she'd not been such an innocent and…" Adam started but I cut him across, this was not something I wanted shouting across my work place.

"Alright, that is it!" I said turning to them both angrily "How old are you both again?"

"Sixteen and legal!" Adam snapped at me, George stood up at this and span round to face Adam furious. I was too, but for now I was more in shock. So instead of clouting Adam right there and then, I grabbed George's arm to hold him back.

"What's the matter? She no different with you?" Adam asked knowing his disrespectful talking of me had touched a nerve.

It was George's turn to be speechless, but unfortunately his body was not like his lips, frozen in place. He began to pull away but I wasn't letting go, every eye in the café was on us now, it was only a matter of time before Jordans came out of his office.

"Adam! Get out!" I yelled, now struggling to keep George from tearing his head off, though not entirely sure why I was preventing this.

Adam looked around the room, and then to me and George, grinning.

"Tell you what, I think I will go." He said and at that exact moment Jordans exited his office and was nearly blown over by the scene in front of him.

"What is going on here?!" he asked, the room was silent and had been for a long time, I noticed.

Adam smirked and left the café swiftly, through the still swinging door I heard his footsteps stop abruptly, though I thought nothing of it. I didn't have the chance to as Jordans rounded on me.

"Robin!" he hissed.

George's phone vibrated next to me, he took it from his pocket and the name on the screen read 'Father'.

"I have to go." he said and swiftly exited the café. I stood still staring blankly ahead, that had been embarrassing.

"Robin!" Jordans repeated more sharply this time "What was that?!"

"Nothing." I said turning away from the table by the door and headed back to Carrie, who was watching me her eyes filled with motherly concern.

"Nothing!? You disrupted the whole café, again!" he said, shouting now. And still am, I felt like adding. Every single customer in the café watched me as I walked to the till.

"Im sorry." I mumbled.

"Ha" Jordans laughed humourlessly "sorry isn't gunna cut it. You've got two more hours of work tonight for that little stunt, unpaid! Plenty of time to take your curtain call." He left the room then before I could reply, well that wasn't fair, I had been publicly humiliated and did I get any sympathy, nope, and what did I get? Two hours of extra unpaid work. Perfect.

The customers now satisfied that the show was over, turned back to their food and today's hot topic, the same as yesterdays, Robin Hood the murderer. I couldn't bring myself to notice this though, Carrie wrapped an arm around my shoulders and said something about boys being nothing but trouble, and she should know she brought up Will. I forced a polite laugh at her joke and let her comfort me, this little scene would be the second best gossip topic in the Southside come one o'clock, right after my other scandal, couldn't I ever win, just once?


	17. The intruder

Chapter seventeen

Wednesday was a disaster, to say the least. Publicly humiliated by my ex boyfriend and his stupid thoughtless comments. I had hastily left the café-after my two extra hours of unpaid work- now late getting home and in the middle of the rush hour, and to top it all off the bus was full to busting so I had to walk, which wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. News travels fast in Locksdale and every where I turned I was the topic of conversation, though for once it was my Clark Kent in the spotlight. Giggles, sniggers, jives and sarci comments followed me home. Old women who knew me shook there heads disapprovingly as I passed them in the street and old school friends laughed openly at my humiliation.

And when it wasn't the most intimate details of my relationships on discussion, it was the supposed murder on my hands. Everyone had their own theory on that particular topic, some people, believed my 'killing' of Mr Kennedy had been self defence, that while stealing money from him for the poor, me and the outlaws had been attacked by Kennedy and killed him in self defence. While most people, mainly people who loved gossip, believed it to be cold blooded murder, end of. Absolutely nobody believed my innocence. It wasn't just weather or not I was a killer that was debated on the streets of Locksdale, oh no that would be too simple, each individual had a different story and version of events to tell. On top of all this, they were also taking bets on how long I would outrun the police, who were apparently looking for me now, hadn't they been doing that for the past three months on Baxter's orders? Some people had considered this, if Hood had evaded capture for this long, what made anyone think she would be found now? They mused, she was still on the lose out there somewhere.

I've gotta tell you having people talking about you like that right in front of you was strange, not that I wasn't used to it, but I had always been about good things before. They talked trash about my alter ego not knowing she was standing right beside them, and when they did realise someone was there, their expressions changed from serious to either laughter or repulse. Yes I felt loved.

"Was' up Penelope?" Sniggered my neighbours son, and I practically ran down the lane to my house.

I entered the entrance hall intending to straight upstairs, but my family had other ideas. Sneaking past the open living room door, where my grandparents sat watching TV, I reached the stairs only to be called into the kitchen for my tea. I wasn't hungry, but ate dutifully, each bite tasting like cardboard. My parents didn't say anything about the incident at the café, though they no doubt knew about it by now. My dad looked like he wanted to, his hands balled into fists as he sat across the table and his expression was murderous, any dad worth the title would have been upset by someone talking about his baby girl the way Adam had talked about me. But I could tell my mum had told him not to say anything, which I appreciated and once was again grateful that she could read my mind.

Once or twice Alice came in to the kitchen, looking to start and argument or embarrass me further, but the looks our mum gave her were enough to make her spin straight back around and go back the way she came. Joey was out with friends, though I wasn't sure what my cousin would have been able to do to help matters were he here.

"Did you hang your suit back up?" my mum asked my dad as I passed her on my way to the sink to was my plate, glad the painful meal was over.

"Yes, didn't get much use out of it did I?" my dad replied simply reading the paper with an agitated look on his face, I wasn't sure weather it had to do with today's events or the story in the paper.

Today had gone exactly as Will and I had predicted, he had spoken to me on the phone during the walk of shame that had been my commute home. Our fathers hadn't even made it past the reception before security threw them out, we weren't happy with this by any means, but it was what we had expected. And to top all of this off George was going to be up all night 'protecting' Stephanie! Like that wasn't going to keep me up all night.

So now laying in my bed on Friday morning- one of my days off- I wondered what today could possibly throw at me. The past few days had been nightmarish, my brain would not shut down, every waking moment my head was filled with my worries and it was beginning to overwhelm me. I was stressed and hadn't slept in days, or to be more specific, since Kennedy's death. So when I wasn't reliving every horrifying, sickening second of that night, I was trying to work out the Stephanie and Claire situation, could we really protect them from Baxter, how would we protect them other than through constant observation, and most importantly why were we even bothering to protect them? And that was another thing, what was happening between George and Stephanie? I hadn't really spoken to George since the Café incident, what if something had happened that night with him and… no, I couldn't think like that, I wouldn't think like that, it wasn't healthy… but still.

I pushed my thoughts away from what George and Stephanie may or may not have been doing Wednesday night, and instinctively it wandered to my other worry. My stalker. Ok maybe suggesting I had a stalker was a bit extreme, but seriously, someone was following me. Every time I left the house, walked into the Café or turned a street corner over the past few days I was sure I was being watched. I didn't know why or who by, but I was definitely being watched. And this, as much if not more than, everything else put me on edge, I didn't like the idea of someone following me around, what if they worked for Baxter? My fears overwhelmed me again, and I sprang out of bed searching for something to distract me from all my concerns.

Once again I was alone in the house, with all my family members out at work or with friends the house was eerily silent. I hated that silence, it gave me time to think, and I didn't like thinking, at least when everyone was home and sticking their noses into my business, I didn't have to think.

Getting dressed and ready for the day (not because I perticuly wanted to, but because it gave me something to do) managed to kill some time, but not nearly enough. I glanced at the digital clock on my bedside table, 09:00, sigh. I wandered downstairs in search of some food, I passed today's edition of the Locksdale Inquirer left on the kitchen table where my dad had discarded it earlier, without a second glance, I didn't want to read the cock and bull story the paper had printed about me today and to be honest I really didn't care anymore, Baxter had already turned the whole town against me so I doubted it would make any difference.

Not all that hungry I took an apple from the fruit bowl and headed to the living room hoping there would be something of interest on the TV, though I doubted it. I settled myself down on the settee and was about to take a bit of the apple when I heard the front door handle rattle, my hand froze, someone was trying to get in. I span round on the settee and looked towards the door, the handle moved up and down ominously as whoever was on the other side tried in vain to open the locked door. My parents didn't like leaving me home alone, though they frequently had little choice on the matter, so to ease their concerns they locked the front door. The attempting burglar gave up and appeared to walk away, I was about to settle back down when I had a sudden realisation, they didn't lock the back door. Horrified I jumped over the back of the settee, he might have had a head start over me, but I had less of a distance to run, if I hurried I might beat him.

I managed to hide behind the back door just as it opened, and then waiting for the right moment, aimed, and threw the Pink Lady at the back of the blond haired burglars head. He winced in pain and raised his hand to the back of his head, where a bump the size of a Pink Lady was undoubtedly forming, I ran forward to attack again but stopped in my tracks as my would be intruder turned round, it was George.

"Ouch!" he complained still holding the back of his head; he looked confused and hurt as he picked the apple up off of the floor.

"Opse." I said simply, I was relived it was only George and not one of Baxter's thugs.

"Yeah opse" he said throwing the apple back to me, I caught it in one hand as he said "that hurt you know?!"

"Well you shouldn't go around scaring me like that! I thought you were a thug of something!" I shouted back exasperated, he really had scared me.

"I was trying to surprise you." He offered in response.

"Oh I was surprised alright!" I replied, to which he shook his head.

"You threw an apple at the back of my head and somehow im the one apologising." He said that but he was smiling.

"For scaring me." I added.

"Of course." He replied, we stood in silence for a moment, watching each other.

"Im sorry." I said and his smile widened, it wasn't something I said often. I could see some sort of remark forming in his mind so to change the subject I asked.

"So what do you want?"

Still grinning he took a set of car keys from his pocket and dangled them from his finger, like I was supposed to know what that ment.

"And?" I asked confused.

"There to my fathers Austin Martin Vantage." He said and from the cheeky twinkle in his eyes I knew his dad didn't know his £92,147 third car was in the hands of his sixteen year old son.

"George, your sixteen, you can't even get a provisional until your seventeen. There's no way you can be driving that around." I said, ever the voice of reason.

"Bloody hell Robin give me some credit, I can drive. My uncle taught me last summer." He said, man was I the only one around here that was waiting till the legal age to learn to drive?

"So you coming or not?" he said stepping forward and grabbing my hand.

"Where?" I asked, but he just smiled and said.

"You'll see."


	18. Marians Bay improved

Chapter eighteen

Baxter mansion

The world was looking so much brighter for Robert Baxter; and had been the same for the past few days. Today the sun was shining, the birds were singing, it

was the most perfect of days, but much more important than this, his plan was working. He had eyes and ears all around the town (what kind of influential

businessman would he be if he hadn't?) and all reports were coming back to him saying the same thing, everyone hated Hood. It was enough to restore his faith

in good old fashioned gossip and deceitful journalism. At the sound of a timid knock on his study door Baxter threw aside his copy of The Locksdale Inquirer

(or the Baxter Inquirer as it should have read, the thought brought a smile to his lips) and looked to see who had dared to disturb him.

"Come in." he called.

The pristine white door opened and there stood a hesitant young boy, about George's age, maybe younger, or was he older? Fearfully the boy entered, Baxter

noticed his right hand man Conner, standing behind the boy, pushing him-not gently-into the room. Baxter tried absent mindedly to place the boy, he worked in

the kitchen didn't he, or maybe in the gardens, oh Baxter couldn't remember and didn't care really.

"What is this?" Baxter asked Conner, 'this' being the most appropriate word to describe the boy.

"You'll see sir" Conner replied to his boss, he then turned to the boy and said "tell Mr. Baxter what you told me."

Baxter waited impatiently and expectantly, the boy shifted nervously from foot to foot before he spoke, though he did so unwillingly after a clip round the

ear from Conner on the orders of Baxter.

"Err…I went to, to the garage fifteen minuets ago and your, your… the Austin Martin Vantage… it's missing." He boy stuttered and flinched as if expecting

another slap, he was right to do so.

"WHAT! Fifteen minuets ago, fifteen minuets ago and you're just telling me this now! Did you not think this important enough to inform me of sooner?!" Baxter

raged jumping up from his seat and glaring at the boy.

"I…I did sir, but I had to speak to Mr. Conner first sir." The boy stuttered but Baxter couldn't have cared less for his excuses.

"Who was it!? Who stole my car?!" Baxter shouted at the child but the boy was reluctant, he didn't want to say. Baxter took a meaningful step forward and

raised his right hand.

"It was Master George!" Yelled the boy fearful Baxter would strike him again, his eyes were wide in horror, but then he realised what he had done and watched

his employers face as realisation hit home. Baxter's expression was murderous.

The motorway

I smiled in spite of myself, I couldn't help it. As we drove down the motorway, with the windows of the lavish car rolled down, the wind blowing through our

hair, the radio turned up full blast and the heat of summer sun warming every inch of our bodies, or maybe that was just the company. George's care free

attitude was infectious and I could feel my mood improving, my smile widened as I turned to see George, who was in the driver seat, singing along to a song

on the radio.

"Where are we going?" I asked again, though by this point I really didn't care.

"I told you, you'll see." He repeated for what must have been the fifth time since he had whisked me away from my ivory tower.

"Now you're feeling more and more frustrated, and you're getting all kind of impatient waiting, we live and we learn to take one step at a time there's no

need to rush it's like learning to fly." George sang in the hilarious way guys do when their trying to sing a girl song, I laughed and joined in.

"Or falling in love it's gonna happen and it's supposed to happen that we find the reasons why one step at a time…" we sang together drunk on adrenalin and

sun light, comfortable in each others company. We carried on like this through the next three songs, Katy Perry I kissed a girl, Lady GaGa Just dance and The

Killers Mr Brightside. George took the next turn off on the motorway and took to the back roads of the countryside, a canopy of tree branches towered over us

as we drove; only permitting the sun to break through its leafy roof every at irregular intervals, the effect was dazzling. George noticed my awe struck

expression and smiled turning down the radio slightly.

"And here I was thinking you'd be difficult to impress." He said.

"I am." I replied raising my eyebrows at his attempted joke, he laughed at me and carried on down the road.

"Were nearly there," He said as we left the canopy and climbed a steep hill, and I had to wonder where he was taking me. A bloody mountain range from the

looks of this hill, I thought I best not to ask again though and sat in silence as we continued to climb. Throughout our ascent George looked expectedly from

me to the top of the hill, he looked egger to reach the top and as I twiddled my thumbs he was on the edge of his seat in anticipation, I soon found out why.

I gasped, I couldn't help it, we had reached the peak of the hill and the most amazing sight greeted us at the top. Stretching on for miles and miles in

every direction was the sea, winking at us as the waves rolled and glistening in the far distance. Below us was a picturesque Victorian village built

practically on the beach, small groups of tourists filtered between the local pub and the souvenir shop taking in the villages simple beauty. George laughed

slightly at my reaction, he had called it I guess, I tore my gaze away from the village and made a face at him as he drove down the hill, the journey seeming

to take less time this side of the hill. We passed a sign that read 'Marians Bay' and were heading for the village, or so I had thought until George turned

left on the high street and drove out of the village and into the trees, the sea vanished from view. I turned to him confused but the question I was planning

never left my lips as I saw the look on George's face, he wasn't finished surprising me yet. He took his eyes from the road and gave me a reassuring look, on

the contrary to my earlier beliefs George was a pretty good driver, he had drove down the motorway as if he owned it earlier and now sped down this country

road as if he had every twist and turn memorised, he had clearly been here before.

The clock on the dash board read 11:00, where were we going? Up ahead the road and the trees came to an end, George speed up again as this came into view and

in no time we were diving through the opening. My mind went blank, only one thought would force its way through my clouded brain was, George. I opened the

car door and stepped out only to be nearly blown over by the beauty of this little cove. We were parked on a small wooden pier above the beach, we were

surrounded by trees and the only thing we could see ahead was the sea, away from the hustle and bustle of the main beach and we were completely alone apart

from the occasional sea gull that flew over head.

"Beautiful." I managed to say.

"Yes." George replied walking to my side and meeting my gaze, did he mean the scenery or… whoa the heat was messing with my head.

"We going down to the beach, or just standing here?" George asked though he walked back to the car and opened its boot. He returned with a picnic basket and

a blanket.

"I can't believe this!" I exclaimed indicating to the basket "what's with you today?" though I couldn't really complain I was ridiculously happy though

probably more so than I should have been.

"It's just a picnic basket Robin, you know for FOOD." He spoke as if I didn't already know, taking the mick out of me, and worryingly I couldn't bring myself

to care. We walked down the wooden steps and selected a spot on the beach close to the sea and set up.

"What do you think?" George asked sitting down on the blanket.

"You know what I think" I said, the expression he wore confirmed my accusation, but I turned away from him and added "it's amazing."

"Glad you like it." George said, joining me in taking in the view.

"Seriously" I said recovering slightly "how on earth did you find this place." It really was another world to the one I knew, to think it was only an hour

and a half's drive away from Locksdale. George was silent for a while, when he spoke there was a slight edge to his voice.

"My mum used to bring me here, before she died." He said and immediately I felt like crap.

"Im sorry, I'll shut up." I said, how tactless was I bringing up his mum.

"It's ok." He said simply.

"No it was stupid, im sorry." I said.

"No really" said, he gently turned my head with his thumb and forefinger so I was looking him in the eyes "Im fine." He looked like he ment it, he really

did, so I smiled at him and he returned it and we went back to the view.

"Yeah we used to come down here on weekends, well my mum and me anyway, father was always too busy for any of that" he said and if I wasn't much mistaken he

was smiling at the memory "we'd stop in the B&B in the village and come here bright and early every day and stay until the sun went down. It was easier here,

and in the village as well, no one knew who we were, who my father was, I liked it better that way."

"I can imagine." I replied thinking of my new found infamy among the gossipers of Locksdale.

"I have so many memories of this place; it's nice to be making some new ones." Although the last comment was aimed at me George didn't turn, he sat there

staring ahead his pleasant smile gone and he looked upset.

"You must miss her." I said meaning his mum, I couldn't even begin to imagine how he felt right now, my grandparents on my mums side had both died before I

was born but I had never known them so I couldn't really miss them, I had never lost someone the way George had. He nodded at my words.

"It's been a few years now, I was only ten when she died" he struggled with the last word "it doesn't get any easier, every one says that one day you'll wake

up one morning and wont be stabbed through your heart when you remember what happened, but you never do, or at least I haven't yet."

"My father found it harder than I did I think, though until now I hadn't thought that possible. She died in a car accident you know, on the Southside," that

made sence, I could remember it, I was only young so I couldn't remember it clearly. I do know though that although life was never easy for people in the

Southside, things got distinctively worse after that day. Maybe that was why. "A young mother who was late taking her kids to school, my mum grew up in the

Southside so she was always there, anyway she swerved to avoid the woman and…" he voice broke.

I wasn't sure why it hurt me so much to see him upset, but I couldn't take his pain. Gently I placed my hand on his shoulder in a sort of it'll be alright

gesture, it was awkward and nowhere near enough but it was all I could do. He turned round to look at me at that point, the strangest look in his eyes, I

couldn't place it, it gave me butterflies in my stomach and filled my heart with helium, I wouldn't have been surprised if it caused me to hover above the

ground slightly. George took my hand from his shoulder and held it in his own.

"Im sorry," He said.

"For what?" I asked now confused, I hadn't expected that.

"Everything, how I treated you at Locksdale Upper, not telling you I was The Crusader, what my father almost did to your family, what he wants to do to you."

He said all of this with such a look of seriousness I had to laugh, it was awful and cruel but still. He dropped my hand and I looked up, he didn't look

impressed.

"Im sorry" I said no longer laughing but smiling at him now "it's just, George none of those are your fault, well ok I'll give you the first two you WERE

abit of an ass, but the others. Its not your fault my parents are decent from Robin Hood, you didn't try to burn my house down George that was your father. I

don't blame you and your in the same boat as me now anyway, less we forget your one of us." I said grinning at him, he thought about what I had said, with

the amount of time it took him to answer I was half expecting the Mandela speech, but instead he simply said.

"If you say so, gawd Robin you're a nasty piece of work, laughing at me like that." He made the end on the sentence into a joke and sensing the mood change

from heartfelt confessions to piss take I held both my hands over my heart as if he had stabbed me there.

"Oh how will I go on?" I said sarcastically, he smiled at me and shook his head.

"Ha-ha, all that sarcasm must be making you hungry, how about you get something to eat so I don't have to listen to your witty banter." George said bringing

the picnic basket onto the blanket. George had packed all the foods necessary for any good picnic on the beach and we managed to work our way through pretty

much everything. Including, Cheese and ham sandwiches, sausage rolls, crisps, grapes and a flask of tea.

"Maybe I packed too much food." Said George as he pored himself a drink, tea is like the law round here, it made no difference it was the middle of summer

and like 27 degrees Celsius.

"You don't say." I said, argh there was no way I could eat anymore of that, I threw my plate back in the basket and sat back.

"You wanna go for a walk?" asked George. I said I did, well I defiantly needed to work off some of what I had eaten, it was a good job this was a one off, if

George carried on feeding me like this I'd be like a house side in no time.

We walked round the beach and through the shallow sea water, I was grateful of my wonderful three-quarter jeans and that I-unlike George-was not soaking wet

after losing my footing by the rock pools and joining the small fish and crabs in the pools. I swear I haven't laughed so much in a long time, today was

doing me the world of good. The day was slowly coming to a close and a quick look at my mobile told me it was four o'clock, we would need to be heading back

soon. So we walked back to the blanket, George taking his shirt off and grabbing another towel, I can't tell you how much effort it took me to look away from

him after the white polo shirt came over this head. Oh look what he did to me, it was bloody ridiculous, no one else ever did this to me! Trying to dag my

attention-kicking and screaming- away from George's chest, I began rummaging through the picnic basket for something to eat.

"Hey George, there aren't any apples in here are there?" I asked.

"No, no more apples." George said landing on the blanket beside me shirt now back on, I sighed, I wasn't sure if this was in relief of regret.

"You make me sound violent." I said laughing.

"Hum lets see, you break into my room and start a scrap because surprise, surprise I was in there." George said.

"Hey, I didn't know it was your room ok." I said defensively.

"Then you break in again only to slap me because I supposedly told the press you were a woman." He said now ticking these off on his fingers.

"I thought you did!" I said.

"You…" George started but I interrupted.

"Alright I get it." I said, what was this, I wasn't violent.

"You pelted Adam with pegs." George finished his sentence his voice different from before, it was devoid of all humour. I didn't say anything, how could I?

The thought of Adam hung over us like a dark cloud, George spoke first.

"He was out of line the other day." He said, a distant and murderous look in his eyes, we hadn't spoken about the incident in the café.

"You get used to it." I said simply with a shrug, really what else could I do?

George looked at me now, confusion, irritation and disbelief written across his face.

"What!? That prat treats you like that and he gets away with it, because you're used to it! Robin that doesn't make it all right, in fact that makes it even

worse because he thinks he can get away with it, he needs a punch or something…" he said it was clear he wanted to say more but again I interrupted.

"George, I've tried that, it doesn't work. I've come to the conclusion the little worm was put on this earth just to piss me off. I don't let him get away

with it; I just don't have the energy or the interest in him to care. Sure what he did in the café was bad but trust me he's done worse, I've given up caring

what he does now, I really have." I said venting all the emotions and frustration I had been building for the past few days, holding them all in had made me

realise one thing, I really didn't care about Adam, there were more important things. But George still didn't look happy.

"I swear if he does anything to you." George muttered darkly and I laughed, that had to be a joke, seriously. So of course I was taken a back when George

grabbed my hand, which I had raised to my mouth in attempt to stop myself laughing, he caught it before it could make its intended destination and I stopped

laughing.

"I mean it Robin, he's not as harmless as you make him out to be, I can see it in his eyes, even more so when he looks at you. He's not finished with you

yet." George said and I opened my mouth to protest that I didn't care, but George brought my hand to his lips and kissed the palm of my hand tenderly, my

breath caught and my heart rate quickened. But it went no further, George's eyes shot open and he jumped to his feet a peculiar expression on his face, and I

was suddenly and very out of character worried if it was something I had done. But George was surveying the surrounding area, his expression was one that

could only be described as territorial, his back was well and truly up.

"Did you hear that?" he asked. No, five seconds ago I couldn't hear anything over the beating of my heart; my usaly sharp ears hadn't stood a chance.

"What was it?" I asked, taking my cue and jumping to me feet ready to take on whatever had gotten to George so badly.

"I dunno, but someone's here." He said, I looked around, I couldn't pick out any figures in-between the trees whoever had made the noise was long gone. At

this point George's phone started to ring. He snatched it up not lowering his guard; I was still surveying the area for any threats.

"Hello." George answered "what how long since?" George asked and waited for a response "ok we're heading back then, bye." He hung up.

"Who was it?" I asked feeling a little out of it.

"Mark" George said and began to pack away the picnic stuff, I started to help "they just plugged the police scanner in at the office" oh yeah we got the keys

to the office back today, funny, that would have been the highlight of my day had George not rescued me "the police are looking for us, well me specifically,

because I stole father car."

I grabbed the blanket, why wasn't I surprised? Was this what my life was now, a constant blur of excitement? Not that I was complaining, it certainly was

more interesting, and it made a nice change for George to be the one in the spotlight for a change, the police helicopter spotlight that is. We ran up the

steps and back to the car once inside I asked.

"Where to now Clyde?"

"Why my dear Bonnie, were going on a joy ride." George laughed.


	19. Busted

Chapter nineteen

The motorway

"Honestly what did you expect? Did you think your dad would just let you go on and steal his car?!" I asked, all sentimental and tender moments forgotten, as we sped up on the motorway back the way we came.

"I didn't think he'd come looking for us right away." George replied bent over the steering wheel in an attempt to make the car go faster.

"Its half past four, you picked me up at half nine!" I said turning to him looking sceptical, he took one look at my expression and turned back to the road.

"You know what I mean." He snapped, and I did, I hadn't thought they'd come so soon and interrupt… gawd what was wrong with me? There was no way George had been implying anything romantic when he kissed my hand, why would he have been we were only good friends after all.

"So what's the plan?" I asked my accusations finished, and wanting to steer my thoughts away from THAT particular direction.

"I'll let you know when I've figured it out." George replied.

"Fair enough." I said we drove in silence for a few moments before George spoke again.

"So who do you think that was in the woods?" George asked referring to the cause of our interruption, whoever had been hiding in the trees while we were talking. I had a few theories about that, it could have been Baxter I suppose, but somehow I didn't think so, I mean for starters if it had been one of Baxter's goons we wouldn't have gotten this far, we would have both been dragged home by the ear by now. No it definitely wasn't Baxter; the most likely suspect was my stalker, I had, had the same cold shivers, oh my gawd someone was there feeling I always got when he (whoever he was) was following me, not that I was going to voice this aloud, I couldn't imagine it going down too well with George, so instead I said.

"I don't think it was your dad." I said.

"Neither do I." George said, from the sound of his voice and the strange expression that had found its way onto his face, I could tell there was something he wasn't telling me. But I didn't get a chance to push the subject any further, sirens blared out behind us.

"George" I said hearing the siren and seeing the lights that accompanied it "your dad's car doesn't have a tracker on it does it?"

The look he gave me was answer enough, yes, yes there was a tracker and he had forgotten completely about it. Before anymore could be said, George shot across the other two lanes, narrowly avoiding other drivers, and took the next exit. He sped off once again onto another country road, the only difference between now and earlier was he didn't know where he was, the confident, cocky air about him had gone and he was focused intently on the road ahead and navigating us home. Well that was the only difference besides the coppers hot on our tail.

George wove round the sharp corners of the country roads, serving and speeding to avoid oncoming cars and the odd farm animal. I had to wonder why he was doing this, why he was bothering, I mean besides the obvious reasons like he wanted to go as long as he could without getting caught, why was he so desperate to get away? He was going to get some stick for this when he got home anyway, no matter how long he managed to avoid capture, obviously his dad knew he had taken the car, so why bother, it didn't make any difference to him. The only person this would effect… was me, I was the only one who could walk away from this without getting in trouble if we escaped to bobby's (police).

"George!" I exclaimed as we narrowly missed a Corsa driving down the other side of the country lane.

"It says driver on my licence Robin." He muttered the common phrase, I didn't point out that he was sixteen and didn't have a drivers licence, anyway the cliché made me think of my dad, who used that phrase whenever he was pissed off with another driver. My parents wouldn't be too happy when the police brought me home, I can't believe it, I should have been brought home by the police a hundred times over for all my stunts as Robin Hood, and in the end I get nicked for joy riding, pitiful.

"Just watch it alright; just because were attempting the Locksdale version of The Great escape (sort of), doesn't mean I can't hit you." I warned, George laughed. Well at least it lightened the mood a little; I hadn't intended it too but oh well.

Actually come to think of it, why were we panicking? It wasn't like the Vantage couldn't out run a couple of cop cars. I was no Jeremy Clarkson but I knew that much, here George was reaching the cars top speed, blowing trees over in his wake (well not really but you get what I mean) and what were we up against, a few old cop car's that would probably blow up if they went above sixty. I was about to point this out to George when something happened that made me rethink my opinion on the reliability of the police cars.

George stomped on the brakes, we both jolted forward as the Vantage came to an abrupt and unexpected stop. My hair swung in font of my face, I looked up and saw two police officers getting out of the Volvo that had swerved in front of the car blocking the road and causing us to stop. I slowly sat back up and pushed my hair behind my ears on one side, I turned to George, his mouth making a perfect O shape.

"Turn the engine off and step out of the car." instructed on of the police offices, another Volvo had pulled up behind us cutting off all escape. And that was it, one look at George's expression and I was in stitches, we smirked at each other and we soon laughing like a couple of lunatics.

Baxter mansion

Seriously the copper who drove us back to Baxter mansion must have been the biggest BUSTED fan in the world, for the full hour and a half drive back we listened to their CD on repeat. I couldn't get 'you said no' out of my head, and I didn't think the police were supposed to play music with 'criminals' in the back seats, well I suppose when your dads Robert Baxter and you were only caught joy riding it didn't matter so much. Anyway George and I found this perticuly amusing, not that there's anything wrong with BUSTED, we just thought it was a little bit ironic.

"…no son of mine will ever be a common thief, and stealing from me of all people! I will not have deception, thieving and lies in my house!" Baxter ranted at George and I as we stood lined up in front of him, oh he really had no idea did he? Deception, thieving and lies were a part of daily life for George now.

"Yes father." George replied so formally, he might have been talking to his boss rather than his dad.

"You are aware of my campaigns against thieves, are you not? And still you steal from me, after everything I do for you, have you no respect?" Baxter carried on, I was sure this performance and careful word choice was purely for my benefit, were I not here, or not an opinionated citizen, George would well and truly have known about it by now.

"Yes father." George replied. Wow this was strange, I mean being in Baxter presence without him yelling for my capture or murdering someone, it was almost like being back at school standing in front of the head, again. Well I suppose Baxter pretty much was the head master of Locksdale so I wasn't far off, now stood in his drawing room (posh speak for living room) I had my eyes trained downwards to keep me from Baxter's wrath, well that and if I met George's gaze I would surely crack up, we had already been told off for laughing once.

"I have nothing more to say to you, I can barely look at you right now" its probably the first time you've seen him today, or spoke to him this week even "we will continue this conversation later." Translation: let me get rid of the audience and then you'll really know what's hit you.

"Yes father." George replied was he even listening to Baxter? I suppose he'd probably heard it all before, it was as if he'd switched into autopilot mode.

"And you, young lady are in a lot of trouble" hum, I've been in worse "you are quite lucky I haven't pressed charges, the fine, im sure, is one someone of your social background would not be able to pay." Ouch, translation: what is this filthy Have Not doing in my drawing room and why is she spending time with my son?

"Yes sir, my inbred cousins and I would surely have to do a lot of thievery to pay back your fine, being so poor and simple as we are." I said in a sugar coated sarcastic voice, I smiled sweetly at him. George sniggered beside me and Baxter shot him a look. It was clear he didn't appreciate my comments and would much have liked to have put me in my place, but he knew lashing out at Have Not girls would not make him very popular, I knew that as well.

"Hum, that will be all then" Baxter said dismissing me like one of his serving staff "you may leave."

"I'll talk to you later" George said implying it was best I leave now while I still could "say hi to your inbred cousins for me." He added grinning.

I snorted despite my efforts; Baxter rolled his eyes impatiently beside George.

"Will do" I replied heading towards the drawing room door that was held open by a butler! "Bye George."

"Bye." George said watching me as I walked out of the door; I lingered long enough to hear Baxter shout.

"What was that?!"

Before I was ushered down the corridor by Baxter's butler, what a bizarre day it had been, but fun none the less. We reached the entrance and Jeeves trusted me enough to vacate the building on my own.

"Maybe you need somebody just like me,  
don't turn me down cos I've got no car and I've got  
no money...

I asked you to dance at the disco  
but you said No!  
The whole world was watching and laughing  
on the day that I crashed and burned...  
At your feet!" I sang as I skipped down the mansions front steps, something caught my eye. Three sleek back cars with tinted windows were lined up around the side of the mansion. A few guys dressed in suits were loading oddly shaped brief cases into the boots, that's wasn't normal.

"Miss?" Jeeves asked appearing from nowhere. "Do you need me to call you a taxi?" ok where had he come from?

"Ermm… no thank you." I said trying to look around him at the mini fleet Baxter was preparing, but Jeeves was wise to my tricks and was stood in just the right place so the cars were blocked from view. He raised his eyebrows at me, though he might have well have said 'move along then'.

Disgruntled I carried on walking and headed off down the road that lead to Baxter's mansion, I got the nagging feeling I needed to know what Baxter was up to, that those cars weren't going to bring good news. But there was nothing I could do about it now, except hope no more lives would be lost because of this, I carried on walking and carried on singing the song that would be stuck in my head all night now.

"Maybe that you think you're too good for me  
Tonight when you get home you're gonna see that  
I know, I've got something better than you baby

I asked you to dance at the disco  
But you said No!  
The whole world was watching and laughing  
on the day  
I asked you to dance at the disco  
but you said No!  
The whole world was watching and laughing  
on the day that i crashed and burned...  
At your feet."

The journey home took a little over half an hour, though I wised I'd let the Baxter butler call me a taxi, this regret was even more evident when I felt the obvious presence of someone else behind me, not really in the mood for confrontation I sped up. Safely behind the front door, I was soon bombarded by my parents, even in the dimly lit entrance it was hard to miss the disappointed looks' on their faces, I guess the police had phoned them. In spite of myself, I was grinning stupidly, I had, had a really nice time today, regardless of being escorted home by the police, Baxter's mystery fleet and my stalker I was in a much better mood than I had been this morning, had that been George's intention.

"Robin, your dad and I are very disappointed in you, I thought we had taught you better than that, stealing and joy riding? I know it was George's fathers car" achem Baxter the evil tycoon "but still you went along with it…Robin?" my mum stopped mid rant taking in my expression "Are you alright?" she asked laughing a little, her voice was completely different and she was looking at me all knowingly.

To say my dad looked confused would have been an understatement, his gaze went from mine to mums as he tried to figure out what was going on, wasn't I supposed to be getting told off?

"Im fine." I replied though my voice implied I was a thousand times better than that which would have been the truth, mums smile broadened.

"It's George isn't it?" he said barely containing the excitement in her voice.

"Mum…" I attempted but could just about get the word in before my dad interrupted.

"I hope you he's treating you right Robin, he's a good kid I know, but you don't have to do anything you don't want to do." Oh how embarrassing, my dad now understood exactly what was going on, or at least he thought he did, and had switched into full on protective dad mode.

"Dad!" I exclaimed trying to sort this out, still grinning though "George and I are just friends."

"All right if you say so, but im just saying…" my dad started but mercifully my mum interrupted him with a tap on the shoulder.

"Why don't you head on upstairs Robin, its getting late."

I nodded my approval of the idea and headed up the stairs.

"Oh and Robin" my mum called as I was half way up the stairs "well talk about the police in the morning." I wasn't getting away with this one. I called back that I was looking forward to it and stopped at the top of the stairs, my phone vibrated signalling I had received a text.

"Ur turn babysitting

da Kennedys 2nite

ha-ha gd luck

luv Will "

It read, oh brilliant, that put a right damper on my mood.


	20. Differences

Chapter twenty

Harrington Close

I sighed heavily; I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take. Slowly I put down my binoculars and checked my watch, five past ten, exactly two minuets since the last time I checked, if that was true then why did it feel like an eternity I'd been sat here, rather than two minuets? I watched the minuet hand on my watch go round once more, just to check it was still working, before snatching up my binoculars and scanning the grounds, nope nothing.

"… I know that's what I said! Oh-my-god, what on earth will her daddy say? I know..." squealed Stephanie from her room, I could here every word she said through the open window and I was regretting my choice of perch, maybe I should go and check the east wall, just to escape her voice.

"Steph, can't I go to my own room? You're not even talking to me." Complained Claire for what must have been the hundredth time in the hour since I'd arrived.

"Claire!" Stephanie scolded "im on the phone and besides you know why you're here."

"No I don't Steph!" Claire carried on moaning and Stephanie ignored her going back to her repetitive phone conversation.

"Oh I KNOW!" Stephanie said laughing.

Claire had been in a bad mood all week by all accounts, her boyfriend Peter had been banned from the premises until all of this was sorted out, and I didn't think she appreciated us hiding out on her roof all night. But she had been nothing compared to her sister, who had looked about ready to throw me back out the window when I had come inside to tell them I was there. It was clear she had been expecting George, if her outfit was anything to go by, a curve hugging black dress and high, high heels. Apparently, or so said Will, she had actually requested George to watch over them tonight, claiming she felt safer with him, well I was far from George. All I could think to say to her was 'gutted'.

Anyway Claire might not have known why she was being forced to sit in her sister's room, but I sure did. It was purely for my benefit, as soon as Stephanie was off the phone she would strike up a conversation and discus it so loudly that I couldn't help but hear it, and I'd bet a pound to a penny it would be something I really didn't want or need to hear. How did I know that? John over heard Stephanie telling this to her friend over the phone last night when he took watch.

"Ta, tah Victoria, I'll speak to you later." Stephanie said hanging up. I settled down on the roof above Stephanie's bedroom window and fingered with the gold chain around my neck, this was going to be a long night.

"Claire darling, will you please fetch me the necklace GEORGE bought me?" She asked, oh I could see what she was doing, there was absolutely no way she needed to talk that loud, not unless she was trying to make me jealous, and that was NOT going to happen. No chance no way! She was being cruel, spiteful and pathetic not to mention ridiculous, I mean as if I was jealous of her, ha, the very idea, I was so above all that it was unbelievable…he bought her a necklace?

"Which one?" Claire asked there was the scraping of chair legs and Claire walked across the room, I assumed anyway. 'Which one'? Why how many necklaces had he bought her?

"The gold locket, you know the one with our pictures in it." Stephanie replied she spoke as if it was no big deal, nothing new; oh yeah because George bought her gifts all the time what was a couple of hundred quid on a necklace? Spoilt brat!

"Oh yes I know it" there was the sound of someone rummaging through a jewellery box, pearls, chains and diamonds made a kind of crunching sound as Claire sought out the necklace "here it is, gosh its pretty Stephanie."

"I know (sigh) George bought it me for my sixteenth I think, though it's hard to keep track with all the presents he gives me." She gave a venous laugh at the end of her well rehearsed line.

"All the presents? But I thought... I mean how lovely." A sharp intake of breath divided Claire's words; oh I really didn't want to listen to any more, even the song I swore would be in my head all night wouldn't resurface and drown out their words.

"I picked this outfit out with George in mind you know Claire? He always said I looked rather fetching in it." More giggles. I began to grind my teeth, not a good habit to have but still.

"George is such a gentleman he would say you looked nice in anything at all." Claire said.

"Or nothing at all!" Stephanie added and both girls started giggling. Deep breaths, that's what my anger management counsellor at Locksdale upper had told me to do in stressful situations, I needed to breathe and count, I'd count to ten.

"Oh Stephanie, poor George doesn't know what a minx you are." Claire said still laughing, though I had to say it sounded false to me, forced somehow.

"Oh I think he does." Stephanie purred, I grabbed my bag and hunted desperately for my second hand iPod, crap no charge, violently I threw the useless bit of technology back into my bag. If only George could hear what they were saying about him…1, 2, 3, 4… I can't do this.

"Im not going to ask" Claire replied and I was glad of that at least, im sure whatever Stephanie had ment by that was something I could live quite happily without knowing " I only wish Peter could be here, I miss him so much." Her words were intended to be sharp, and were ment for my ears, and I knew she wasn't happy about the whole Peter being banned thing, but I was too busy being overwhelmed by too many emotions to be sympathetic. Hate, anger, frustration, hate, loathing and love clawed at my insides. Did I mention hate?

"Oh for pity's sake Claire, will you not ever shut up about Peter?" Stephanie snapped and I was sure Claire's part in this particular production of Boyfriend and the Bitch, was over.

"Well excuse me! I know he's not exactly George Baxter but you're not the only one here missing a boy, and you're not the only one capable of feeling love!" Claire shot back, man had she got that right! Oh she ment herself…

"Gawd their hardly one and the same, George is leagues above Peter!" Stephanie said huffily, well she had a point there, not that I was siding with her or anything, but comparing Peter to George was like comparing a light bulb to the northern lights or a daisy to a rose. Peter was alright, but he was no George. Apparently Claire disagreed as she huffed and then left her sisters room slamming the door behind her.

Thank heavens! Now I didn't have to listen to them both. Claire's absence didn't seem to bother Stephanie though; she chuckled and walked over to the window, I looked over the edge of the roof and saw her mass of red curls. I swear it took every ounce of my self control to resist dislodging a roof tile and throwing it at her head.

"Pity you couldn't be here tonight George" Stephanie said dramatically gazing at her locket, Oscar winning performance right there! Though I her intended audience was not impressed "we had such fun the other night." That's it, get me a roof tile!

She pulled her head back inside, satisfied she had sufficiently incensed me, and click, click, clicked in her heels back into the room, switched on the radio or whatever it was and Leon Jackson, Creative belted out. With the swing music in my head I got the most unwelcome image of George and Stephanie dancing around her bedroom, and shook my head violently. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9… ten wasn't going to be high enough. Mercifully my mobile phone rang, Denial rang out and I dived for the phone, George.

"Hello." I answered and the music bellow me died, nosy cow!

"Robin! My father plans to act tonight!" whoa, straight in there with the news George, what happened to a simple hello?

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"My father Robin, he plans to move tonight, he wants the Kennedy family dead! Conner ran in to speak to him after you left and father had finished laying into me about stealing the car, I knew it was something important by the look on Conner's face, he was excited" George said the last word with such repulsion, I could practically see the look of contempt on his face, and im embarrassed to report George's anger made me go weak at the knees "so I hung back and listened through the door, its not as thick as fathers office door so I hear every word. Robin it's barbaric, even for father this is brutal, so its battle stations, everyone will be there in fifteen minuets and I'll be there in five, you need to get in Steph's room."

He was driving, he shouldn't be on the phone while he was driving that's dangerous, oh but I suppose if Princess Stephanie's life was in danger he could justify risking his own!

"Will do." I said professionally.

"I'll be there soon." He said and grudgingly hung up; well I wasn't going to pass him on the Stephanie if that was what he wanted!

Quickly I followed George's advice; I grabbed my rucksack and threw it over my shoulder as I lowered myself onto the window sill of Stephanie's room.

"Oh-my-god!" she exclaimed as I climbed through the window, she was sat at her vanity applying lipstick to her already rouged lips "do I not get any privacy?!"

"Not when your lives in danger." Said simply and dropped my bag to the floor so I could remove my bow and arrows.

"What do you mean?" she asked snappily.

"George just called me, Baxter's on his way now." I replied busy with my bow.

"To do what?!" Stephanie asked her voice rising.

"What did you think all of this was about?" I asked looking at her in disbelief "why did you think we were all here? Gawd sake we explained all this in the beginning, Baxter wants you dead." I said once again I didn't use any tact, well I am sorry but I was really losing my patience with this girl. Anyway I was still busy with my bow checking I had enough arrows when she span me round to look at her.

"Look here bitch! I don't want you here, so get lost. Look what you've done now, Mr Baxter's soldiers are coming to get me!" she really wasn't a happy bunny right now, but neither was I so I pulled her hands off me and stared back at her with the same loathing look she was giving me.

"You think I wanna be here? You think I don't have something better to do, some better cause than sitting her babysitting some pampered princess? And guess what, I don't like you either, but despite all that im here protecting your sorry arse! And do you want to know why? Because we couldn't save your father that's why, and I'll be damned if I can't grant him his final wish!" I yelled back at her, I well and truly had, had enough of her, but Miss mardy arse still wasn't happy.

"I don't believe you! I want to speak to George, your lying to me!" she said getting close to hysterics, this was completely different to the confident, tarty, conniving bitch she had been since I met her, she actually sounded scared. I sighed, how much more did I have to deal with today?

"Look, you could do that, or you could get your arse in gear and help me save you and your sister from the most brutal coldblooded killer in Locksdale!" I yelled back.

She thought about this for a moment before she gave her decision.

"How can I help?" she asked standing tall again, that was more like it.

Author note: small chapter I know but I promise to make up for it in the last few chapters : ) xx


	21. Just friends?

Chapter twenty-one

Harrington Close

Defensive positions were assumed, and everyone was on hyper alert. Up on my orders Stephanie had rounded up her sister Claire and the two of them were now chatting nervously about Baxter's oncoming assault, well almost everyone anyway. The manor house had been fortified to the best of our abilities and the materials available to us, so needless to say it wasn't brilliant. Our defences mainly consisted of locking and barricading every door and window baring the one in Stephanie's room, which had the best view of the grounds. All six outlaws were now present and accounted for and scattered around the house and grounds on look out, Will was hidden in some bushes by the front door, Mark by the south wall entrance, Jack positioned on the roof, John in a group of trees in the grounds, George was stationed by the gates and me taking the defensive and offensive position at Stephanie's window, all off us armed with binoculars' and bows.

For now all we could do, was wait. It was unnerving and unsettling all this waiting about, wondering when Baxter would decide to raise his ugly head, so as you can imagine none of us were very happy about it, the waiting I mean, but what else could we do? Im not complaining or anything (actually that's exactly what I was doing) but I couldn't help but think my job was slightly more difficult than everyone else's, and I didn't mean I had more work to do or my job was in someway harder than everyone else's, no it wasn't the physical protecting bits that bothered me, it was the mental drainages that were getting to me.

"What have we ever done to him?" asked Claire near to tears "he killed our daddy isn't that enough for him? This is your fault!" she shot the last bit at me and was now openly crying. I rolled my eyes, we all dealt with stress and fear in different ways, I knew that, me? When I was stressed or afraid I got on with things, I did my best to get rid off the things that were bothering me so much and came out of everything a much stronger person, not Claire though, she cried and begged some unseen entity to make it all go away.

"It will be all right Claire; we are going to make them pay for murdering daddy." Stephanie soothed, notice how she made no effort to stick up for me, in what way exactly was this my fault? I wanted to ask but instead I held my tong and carried on with the task at hand. I walked to the window and looked through the binoculars straight ahead at the roads and streets beyond the manor's gates, still no sign of Baxter, what was he doing? I put down the binoculars and spoke into my ear piece.

"Mark anything on the south wall? By the back gates maybe?" I asked, wondering if Baxter would be taking the strategic approach.

"Nope Robin, don't worry you'll be the first to know if I see anything, Baxter's bound to turn up sooner or later." Mark replied.

"I think I'd rather it be sooner, this is nothing short of torture." I said leaning against the wall by the window and rubbing my forehead in frustration.

"I think that's what he wants" Jack joined in; though she spoke into the microphone on her headset I could hear her on the roof "to get to us first."

"So you're saying he wants to mess with our heads before he kills us" Claire let out a cry and Stephanie glared at me at my lack of tact "somehow I don't think so, Baxter doesn't even know we're hear does he George?" I asked ignoring Stephanie, her ears perked up at the mention of George's name.

"No he didn't know" George replied in answer to my question "but Robin are you sure…" Will interrupted George's question and I was grateful, I knew what it was.

"It's eleven 'clock, not exactly late is it?" oh gawd I've been hear for an hour "surely Baxter will wait until he's sure the Kennedy's are all asleep before he makes his move. It would be able to get rid off them while their out of it" I agreed with Will, we might have quite a wait yet, oh the joys.

"Speaking of out of it" I said lowering my voice so the sisters couldn't hear "is Mrs Kennedy still at The Swallows?"

"Yep" Mark replied who was keeping an eye on her just in case Baxter was looking to erase Kennedy's ex-wife as well "she's still in the pub."

I had to admit, I felt pretty bad for Mrs Kennedy, I mean I know she's an alcoholic who isn't exactly in the running for the mother of the year award, but she's had it abit ruff. She had had it no where near as bad as some of the single mothers on the Southside, working two minimum wage jobs and bringing up four kids all on their own, that was ruff. But she hadn't had it easy either, her rich husband leavers her with their two daughters while he goes off galbanting doing who knows what, gets murdered by the most powerful man in Locksdale who is breathing down her neck now for some unknown reason, all the while trying to bring up two unruly teenagers, it can't have been much fun.

"Ouch!" John yelled.

"John!" we all asked in unison, everyone had sprung into a defensive position at John's exclamation expecting the worst.

"It's alright, just banged into a tree is all." John replied and everyone relaxed, sighing and telling John off for scaring us.

"Bloody hell mate" Will exclaimed "give us all a heart attack next time why don't ya, we though one of Baxter's goons had snuck up on you or something."

"How do you walk into a tree anyway?" asked Mark, you could hear the smile in his voice.

"I didn't walk into it, I banged into it. Anyway you try walking about out here, its proper dark, I can't see a thing!" John replied defensively, I laughed a little.

"Robin are you sure you're alright up there?" George asked, the concern that coated his words broke my heart, if only his fear wasn't for bloody Stephanie "you don't need me to come up there do you? It's no problem…" I interrupted before his words could spark anymore jealousy.

"George everything's fine! Credit me with a brain wont you, im sure I can handle this on my own!" I said exasperated, Stephanie jumped to her feet abandoning her sister and motioned for my headset.

"I know it's just I don't want to…" he started but again I didn't want to have to hear his words.

"I know George, you don't want them to get hurt. Alright I know so don't worry" I said while shooing Stephanie away, or trying to at least.

"I want to talk to him!" she hissed in my ear.

"Steph?" he asked a confused tone to his voice "Robin this has nothing to do with…"

"Yes its Stephanie, she wants to talk to you and she's getting on my last nerve!" I snapped though my words were directed more to the spoiled princess in front of me that the night in shining armour by the gates. I didn't care if she had helped me and the others fortify the house, or rounded up her sister so I could keep an eye on them both, she was still a bitch.

"And here we were worried this might get boring." Will commented and the others laughed cheerfully at his words, well everyone except George, but I was too busy trying to get Stephanie to back off to notice this.

"Do you mind im trying to have a conversation here?!" I snapped.

"Robin im talking about y…" he trailed off when he realised I wasn't listening.

"I want to know what's going on, I have a right to know!" Stephanie demanded.

"For gawd sake I'll tell you if anything is happening, just let me listen!" I yelled.

"Whatever." Stephanie spat.

"Robin…" George tried again.

"Don't you dare whatever me! I don't have to be here you know?!" I was full on shouting at her now; all professionalism was well and truly out of the window.

"No? Then get lost!" she yelled back, Claire watched worriedly.

"Robin!" George piped up concerned.

"Will you just listen to him?!" Stephanie screamed, Claire ran into the en-suite bathroom and I pushed away Stephanie who was still reaching for the head set.

"I thought you couldn't hear?" I asked.

"I never said that." She said.

"I'll talk to you guys later." I said into the microphone before hanging up, I took off the headset at placed on the window sill, and turned to face Stephanie.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, that was when she ran at me aiming a slap my way, it wasn't like I couldn't take her, I had blocked her attack and gently (well sort of gently) pushed her backwards. Unfortunately though, when Stephanie attempted to assault me, I stepped backwards banging into the headset and sending it toppling out the window, great Mark was gunna kill me, but I couldn't dwell on that thought as Stephanie spoke.

"What's wrong with me, what's wrong with you? Why won't you listen to him?" Stephanie asked, she looked as pissed off as I felt.

"I do listen to him." I said simply, she scoffed.

"Then what was that? If I had George Baxter telling me to be careful because he couldn't bear to see me hurt, I'd at least let him finish his sentence!" she spat.

"What are you on about?" I asked genuinely confused now, the furious rage I had felt so strongly just a moment ago was slowly vanishing.

"What am I on about?" Stephanie repeated with a humourless laugh, she imitated my common accent "I'll tell you what im talking about, but fist answer this, are you blind or something or are you just oblivious by nature?"

"I don't understand." I said, and I didn't.

"I can't believe this!" she span around in frustration running her hands through her hair "you honestly don't know."

Ok, she was annoying me again, what was she talking about, why wouldn't she just say what she wanted to say? Before I could ask, Stephanie took in my expression and spoke again.

"George!" I exclaimed.

"What about him?" I asked.

"Oh-my-god! How thick is this bitch?! He's in love with you! Who knows why, but he is!" She practically screamed and my mind went blank, I swear I didn't hear a thing after 'he's in love with you'; maybe she was right maybe I SHOULD get my ears checked.

"W…w…what? George?" I managed to stutter, this wasn't possible, no way, and she was completely messing with me she must be. I know there was a… lets say… attraction between us, why else would George have kissed me not just once but twice, but it ment nothing, we were just, I dunno what we were just doing, it ment nothing!

"Yeah!" she said as if I was slow "like I said, who knows why when he could do so much better." I barely heard her insults; I couldn't get over what she had said.

"I… I don't think so! We are, George and I, we're just friends." I muttered, she looked like I'd just suggested the sun wasn't going to rise tomorrow.

"Gawd don't make me say it again." She said sitting down.

"But you! You and George… I thought." I couldn't speak properly, what was happening to me?

"What you thought me and George were an item, ha I wish" she said, I could tell she was opening up and this wasn't something she admitted often "haven't you seen the way he looks at me, it's like im his little sister or something, it makes me sick. But what's worse is when I see him looking at you, like there's no one else in the room, because to him there is no one else there, your all that matters." I looked at her in disbelief.

"Don't believe me? What about the other night, when you came here to tell me Baxter wanted us dead and I started throwing things at you. I wouldn't have hurt you, not really, but still George treat you like you were the most valuable thing in the world, like you would brake like the vase's I was throwing if he wasn't careful." She said and my expression must have still been on of scepticism as she carried on.

"Or Wednesday night, when he kept look out, I dressed up to the nines, I mean come one no red blooded male could have resisted me in that outfit" I tried not to imagine, like I wanted to know that "but did he notice me? No did he narners, I invited him down here, but all he did was talk about you. 'Robin said this… Robin said that… Robin's ex-boyfriend makes my blood boil!' it was sickening!" she said, I was blushing terribly now, for so many reasons, the memory of that embarrassing incident only one of them.

"But…" I started but Stephanie wouldn't let me finish my denial of her claims.

"Save it alright, you know im right." She said scornfully, I didn't though, I didn't know she was right, hec I wasn't even sure of my own name at this moment in time, George loved me?! So instead I stood there looking bewildered, besotted and bemused, could I believe her? What if this was some sort of trick to get me to admit my feelings for George and make me look a fool in front of me when he told me they were unrequited.

'Denial' rang out from my pocket, or was that just irony and the noise was in my head? I would have stood there contemplating this had Stephanie not asked.

"Are you not going to answer that?"

I reached into my pocket relived of a distraction; I hadn't recognised the ring tone until I heard his voice and my heart started trying to batter its way out of my chest.

"Robin!" George breathed I sigh of relief though worry coloured his words, was that for me? "What's happened to your head set, none of us could reach you?"

"I accidently knocked it out of the window." I replied grateful my voice had returned though it was a little hoarse.

"Robin, listen to me he's here, fathers here now!" George shouted and I span round and grabbed my binoculars though I didn't need them, far off beyond the gates I saw the three car's I had seen earlier back at the Baxter mansion, speeding down the streets that lead to the manor.

"George, those cars were parked outside your house." I commented, fear now gripping me.

"I know Robin." George replied, he sounded equally afraid, though why should he? He hadn't seen what I had; he didn't know what had been loaded into the back of those cars. Guns, lots of them, I realised it now, that's what was in those cases, guns, and George was still down by the gates!

"George!" I exclaimed, Stephanie jumped to her feet again, Claire came out of the en-suite and my head began to spin, I needed to get George off the front line and back here with the rest of us.

Author note: just to let you know im not happy with this chapter, im sure it could have been done better, let me know if you spot any weak points in it, it is an important chapter. xxx


	22. The element of surprise

Chapter twenty-two

Harrington Close

"Jack!" I shouted, I had been conscious of Jack over hearing the conversation we were having earlier, but now I couldn't have cared less "throw me your head set, I need to talk to the others." Sensing the urgency in my voice Jack did as asked, I put on the head set and walked to the window, could I see any of the others?

"Everyone into the house now!" I ordered into the microphone, I was in full on leader mode now, not giving anyone a chance to argue I carried on "use Stephanie's window to get in, then we'll split up, Will and Jack" I spoke up so she could hear me "you two take the front of the house, Will man the door and Jack find a window and clear some on the barricade so you can get a good range. Mark and John you two are to take the back of the house just in case Baxter decides to surprise us, John your marking the back door, Mark do the same as Jack for the back of the house. George you're positioned on the top floor, bows out everyone this is serious now!" I instructed.

My plan was simple; stop the hit men from entering the house at all costs, if they couldn't get to the sisters, how could they possible kill them? If they never made it through the door, there was no way they could complete their mission. Though I wanted to stop the men before they could get anywhere near their intended victims I couldn't bear the thought of George, or anyone, taking on these well armed assassins alone, I needed them all in the manor house where I could see they were safe. The others accepted my orders with out question, George however, who was new to being told what and what not to do by a leader said.

"Wouldn't it be simpler just to stop them before they get to the house? If we all come down to the gates" he suggested though he said this a little grudgingly "we can put an end to it right there and then, it's a little risky, but there not expecting us."

"He's got a point." Mark said and the others agreed.

"We can't do that" I said horrified at the suggestion "you don't understand, when I saw those cars parked outside the mansion Baxter's thugs were loading gun cases into the boots" I said the last part quietly, I didn't want to freak out the Kennedy's "it's too dangerous."

The others were silent, as the gravity of my words sank in, if Baxter had only loaded a few guns into his cars and sent several goons to the manor house in the middle of the night, and he had wanted them to simply slip in kill the girls, and then slip out again why would he have packed so many cases? No, this was not to be simple, Baxter had intended on a massacre, his troupes would slaughter the girls weather or not they were asleep and make it such a horrific nightmare that they would beg for it to end, and when it was over he would some how blame it all on us. The thought of it all sent a shiver down my spine and made my stomach turn.

"Everyone back here" I repeated "that way we know what we're up against, that way we can make the most of the element of surprise, that way I know where everyone is and what is happening."

Everyone agreed and made their way swiftly back to the manor, there hadn't been the time for arguing, even if it was a hurried one as ours had been, the hit men were upon us and pulled up in front of the gates just as the last of us were through the window. Running everyone made it into their positions, George stayed in the room as I explained what was happening to the girls.

"They're here." I explained fixing an arrow in my bow.

"Already?" Claire asked losing the colour from her cheeks.

"We're ready for them though." I reassured her gently, Stephanie threw me an appreciative look, ok maybe she was capable of other facial expressions, that certainly was the nicest one she'd given me, and I smiled back at her sadly.

"Mummy, where is she? What if she comes home and they get to her first…" Claire asked.

"She's still… out" I said choosing my words carefully, how much did Claire know about her mothers late night trips to the local pub? "Mark would have told us if she was on her way back."

"She's safe Claire don't worry." George said trying to calm the girl and Stephanie placed a comforting arm around her.

"But right now we gotta focus on keeping ourselves safe." I said walking over to the window and pressing my back against the wall, peering cautiously out the window, I saw that the men were getting out of the cars "George." I said summoning him to my side, he was there almost instantly, his warm breath on my neck and his hand on my shoulder as he peered around me and out the window, Stephanie gave me another look, 'see' it read.

"Three cars, six guys?" George said trying to work out how bad things looked for us "but who knows how many weapons', especially if there's only a few guys, what else could be taking up all that space in the car? They sure aren't dressed for a fight though, more like a board meeting." George mumbled just loud enough for me to hear.

"Yeah but it's like we've been saying, they don't know we're here, they're not expecting a fight, just murder." I mumbled back.

"We wont have that edge for long though, so we have to make it count, when we do reveal ourselves it has to make a big impact, take a few of them out of action or maybe even scare them away if they think there's a lot of us." George said discussing battle plans, we were still peering though the window but were taken aback when a loud metallic bang issued from down the drive. Stephanie made a move towards the window I raised a hand motioning for her to keep her in place, she complied the assassins had broken though the gates and were now driving up towards the house.

"You don't suppose this is what happened to Mr Kennedy?" George asked whispering again.

"I don't think so, from what you heard your father saying, that was personal. I think this is just the icing on the punishment cake for your dad, its not important enough for him to finish them off himself like he did Kennedy." I replied and hated myself for not thinking, beside me I felt George flitch at the mention of how his father had murdered Kennedy in cold blood, George, understandably, had found it hard to deal with. By way of apology I grabbed George's hand and squeezed it gently, I smiled up at him apologetically and George looked a little shocked at fist, before returning the smile and the squeeze.

"They're right outside." Claire whispered fearfully and Stephanie cleared her throat meaningfully behind us. We let go of each others hands and George and I both turned to look out of the window again, car doors slammed as the six hit men vacated their vehicles. I readied my bow but held it in place, I gestured for George to go to the top of the stairs, just outside the bedroom door, we could communicate with the others better that way, as he grabbed the banister I could hear Jack say quietly.

"Robin?"

"Hold it." I instructed quietly, I was relying on the element of surprise.

The six men spread out, I couldn't just pick them off through the window, it's an unwritten rule that we never kill unless it's in self defence and even then we try to avoid it. Doors and windows began to rattle and shake on the downstairs floor as assassins attempted to gain access to the manor, having little luck they got frustrated and began beating and the blockades.

"Robin?" John asked his voice almost a whisper, but the house was so quiet I still heard it, the silence was suffocating and the fear of capture hung around us taking up what little air we were permitted.

"Hold it." I repeated.

The banging and rattling grew louder as the men got more and more frustrated and infuriated, battering their way into the house just wasn't happening, and soon they were going to figure that out. Suddenly the noise stopped.

"Robin." Claire whispered absolutely horrified, all of the colour had drained from her pretty face and she looked as though she might pass out at any moment, Stephanie held her closer.

"Hold…" I was about to repeat but I stopped half way though the echo, a new noise had pierced the silence, a ticking sound, like a clock but not quite the same, tick, pause, tick pause, it went. I met George's gaze on the third tick, what was that? His eyes asked confused. Tick, pause, tick, pause I thought about it but realised a little too late what exactly the noise was, horror-struck my eyes widened and from the look on George's face I could tell he had realised, as I had, what the ticking noise was.

"Get back!" I shouted on the eighth tick, not caring about secrecy or the element of surprise "It's a…" bit it was all too little too late, my world slowed down as I ran toward the door to warn my friends but half way though my warning and on the tenth tick, BANG! The house shook and I fell to the floor with the force of the blast, ahead of me George gripped the banister tightly to keep himself from toppling down the stairs, behind me the two sisters screamed and downstairs I couldn't make out even the faintest sounds of human life.

"ROBIN!" George shouted, I felt as though there was a pillow over my head and my ears were slow on the uptake, I saw George's words formed in his mouth before I heard them, he was gazing sickened down the stairs.

"WILL! JACK!" I shouted, grabbing my bow which had flown out of my hands during the blast, I ran towards George and the stairs, my knees went weak as I took in the sight before me. Splintered shards of the grand oak front doors littered the entrance hall, the remainder of the doors hung precariously in chunks on the delicate hinges, the windows were blown out and the furniture that had blocked all the entrances to the front of the house was destroyed, small fires illuminating their remains. The bomb had been a relatively small one, this was evident as the house was still standing, and its purpose had been purely to remove any obstacles in the assassins' way, including outlaws? There was no sign of Will or Jack anywhere; my eyes franticly searched the debris for my friends, tears formed in my eyes and I was swaying slightly my legs threatening to give out in grief, seeing this George put an arm around my waist to steady me.

What had happened to them? John and Mark, who I had just realised, were trying to batter their way through the door that led to the entrance room, large chunks of the furniture and door blocking it off. They barged though the wreckage and stood still as they took in the scene, horrified, devastated looks across their faces, they spotted us standing at the top of the stairs and their looks worsened, pale faced and crying I was sure I didn't give them the denial they so desperately wanted, where were our friends? Cough, cough, the noise echoed in the silent room and immediately all of us were franticly searching out the source of the noise. I ran halfway down the stairs but George held me back grim faced, oh no, he didn't want me to see, which ment it didn't look good. John and Mark began franticly overturning large chunks of wood searching for the two friends; I wanted so badly to help them and I could tell from George's red eyes and impatient twitching that he wanted to help as well. But he wouldn't let himself; he stood rooted firmly to the staircase holding tightly (though cautiously so as not to hurt me) round my wrist, he desperately didn't want me to see anything that might scar me. Honestly who did he think I was some delicate little flower that can't stomach a bit of gore? My friends were down their somewhere and they needed me.

"Mark!" John called, he was stood in the far back corner of the room where a large chunk of wood was up against the wall. Mark ran over and the two of them struggled as they lifted the heavy bit of wood, John taking the bulk of the work they soon pulled back the wood revealing Jack and Will. My heart lifted and I felt as though I might cry again, out of happiness this time, I don't know what's wrong with me today, why im all weepy. They were alright, and that was all that mattered, spluttering as the two boys helped them from their wooden prison, Will and Jack seemed unharmed except for a few cuts and scrapes. Will and a thin ribbon on blood trickling down the side of his head and Jack had a deep gash on her cheek and both were covered in dust and ash blown out by the explosion and were obviously shaken, but there were no serious injuries, it seemed the block of wood had taken the worst of the explosion. I laughed in relief and beside me George joined in, we began skipping down the remainder of the stairs to go and help our friends, but suddenly I pulled George to a stop, it wasn't over yet. In the still smoking doorway stood a tall man in his late thirty's, he wore a expensive suit and dark sunglasses even though it was night time, also and more importantly, he carried a menacing looking gun.

Not noticing me and George the assassin raised his right arm, with which he held his gun, and took aim at the group of teenagers in the far corner. Confusion was briefly written across his face, wasn't their only supposed to be two kids? He shook off his uncertainty and in the time space of a second it was once again boredom, he was here to do a job and that was all. Oh no he didn't, there was no way these guys were going to take my friends way from me twice in one day, I aimed my bow at the gun in his hand, trusting my ancestors skills with a the weapon to do the job, and shouted.

"Oi!" The gunman's head span round in search of the owner of the voice, as he did so I released the arrow, it hit target and knocked the gun out of his hand, he watched in shock as his weapon flew across the room and out of sight.

"You guys never hear on knocking?" I shouted across the room, at that moment five other figures appeared in the doorway beside the startled assassin and he calmed down, what could six teenagers possible do to six highly trained killers? In a single movement everyone in the room drew their weapons, the outlaws each marked one assassin with their bows and the killers each took out a gun, the first man taking one from the inside of his suit jacket, they were obviously well stocked. But that was ok, we could take them, I had to admit things had looked better for us but there was nothing that could be done, we had two choices, give up and surrender to the assassins who would kill the Kennedy sisters and probably us as well regardless. Or we could try; we could do our best to honour Kennedys dying wish and save his daughters from the same awful fait, we could give it our all and maybe we would come out on top, we could all walk away from this after the fight with our heads held high. Needless to say which option I chose.


	23. Warfare

Chapter twenty-three

Harrington Close

"Get them." The first hit man said simply, clearly he didn't see us as much of a threat.

"Let's go!" I called out and then all hell broke loose, outlaws and hit men alike charged into battle, bullets and arrows flying around our heads and amongst all this madness six teenagers suddenly became aware that they were fighting for their lives. These trained killers were not about to let us walk away from this, not now we knew their secret, and that thought alone had me sweating beneath my mask, I couldn't let my friends put their lives in danger like this, but what choice did I have? I had to admit that it didn't look too good for us; wooden arrows were no match for modern weapons, and there was only so long we could carry on dodging bullets like this. We might have amazingly sharp senses, but we weren't that good, how long before someone was caught by a well aimed bullet? We either needed to find some sort of protection, a shield to protect us from the bullets, or start counting down the precious seconds.

Aiming once again for the gun in the first hit man's hand I sent an arrow zooming across the room and then the others and I sprinted after it to make our attack. Skidding to a halt I watched as the gun few from his hand and once again he pulled out another, as did two other hit men by the door who had lost their guns to two of the other outlaws, oh boy.

"Will!" Jack shouted before grabbing Will's arm and dragging him to the floor as a hit man aimed a bullet at this head, they hit the deck just as the bullet soared over head. John and Mark began dancing around the room trying to avoid being hit and I fell into a daze, how could we possibly win this one?

The hand to hand combat we were used to obviously wasn't going to make an appearance in this fight, especially when the assassins' were so well stocked on fire arms. I had very little knowledge on guns, actually that was an understatement, I knew just about enough to tell you that each assassin was holding one, at any other moment in time but right now I would have been proud to tell you I had little knowledge on guns, I detested the things and I, like most people in the UK, had never held, or intended to hold, a gun. But now however I wished I'd at least researched the subject, it probably would have come in handy now… research, that was it, surely Mark our science boff would know something about this. In the middle of all the banging and twanging I searched round for Mark, I was so desperate to find him and put my worried mind to rest I'd completely forgotten where I was. Ah ha! There was Mark, over there by the others, helping Jack and Will to their feet and rushing for cover as John shot arrows at the attacking hit men, I felt like a spectator, like I wasn't really there, but still I had to get to Mark and fast if I was going to help them.

"Robin, GET DOWN!" A strangely vexed and strained voice called out and before I knew what was happening and had time to do more than turn my head (which revealed two armed hit men standing to my right) I was pinned to the floor by a strong masculine body.

"What are you playing at!?" an angry George hissed in my ear as two bullets whizzed over our heads "are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"I…" I managed to mutter before George was pulling to my feet (muttering something about how I must have a death wish) and towards the others as the gun men began to take aim at us again, a stream of bullets followed us as we ran across the room to where the others were hiding down the side of the grand staircase. The cover we had here wouldn't protect us for long, the wooden banisters and stairs were already splintering as the hit men shot continuously and madly in our direction.

"Mark" I panted as we reached the others "we need a shield!"

"I know Robin, I've been trying to think of something but I dunno, they're only using hand guns, obviously they hadn't expected the Kennedy's to put up much of a fight, but look what they're doing to the banisters!" Mark said as a stray bullet collided with the wooden ball on the top of the banisters and it shattered into splinters.

Mark was right, the mass of debris we had at our disposal wouldn't put up much of a defence, we needed something stronger, like a metal of some sort, like iron or steel… steel of course!

"Mark, steel!" I said grinning in triumph, while around me the house was shaking, we were being showered in wood splinters and armed trained killers approached.

"The kitchen!" Mark replied thinking about it, he grinned back at me "practically everything was made of steel in the kitchen."

"Alright" Will shouted over the noise "and how are we going to get there?"

He had a good point, they weren't likely to just let us pass, I looked around, there had to be something here we could use. Toppled over against the wall to our left was a bookshelf filled with a decent amount of thick books, George followed my gaze.

"You got a plan?" he asked.

"Oh yeah." I replied the wheels in my head turning; conscious we didn't have much time. Still I didn't like the idea of destroying books, any reader can understand my apprehension to ruining a perfectly good book, I mean someone obviously put a lot of care and effort into writing it, but if it saved our lives.

"They're cook books mainly." Jack said reading my mind and looking though the pile, well that made it slightly better.

"John, can you pick up that book shelf?" I asked my strong friend, it was a pretty large wooden bookshelf but nothing John couldn't handle I was sure.

"No problem." John replied and walked towards the bookshelf, blessed with incredible strength John had rightened the wooded rectangle in no time.

"Everyone else grab a few books, wait until my say so and then launch them at the bullets, maybe if we can intercept the bullets mid flight the books will be enough to deflect them." I said and the others nodded gathering up books, suddenly the shooting stopped. The others looked at me questioningly, I held a finger to my lips, we would wait and see what they were up to.

I strained my ears for sound of movement, but I couldnt hear anything. George's eyes widened, his hearing was marginally better than the rest of ours, he turned to me and mouthed, 'they're round the corner'. Once again I listened, it was true, and round the other side of the staircase I could hear the cautious, almost silent shuffling of the assassins. I motioned for the others to hold, they nodded, silently I tiptoed to the bottom of the stairs and the end of our cover, ducking down so as not to be seen I aimed an arrow around the corner and realised the string. The frightened yelp (the only sign of emotion they had shown since arrival) of a hit man told me my arrow had hit target, the space on the wooden floor between the first hit man's feet, who had been half way across the foot of the staircase. I ran back towards the others as a group battle cry sounded out from the hit men, I gave John the thumbs up and he began to lift the wooden bookshelf, his face twisted in effort as he bent down low and grabbed the bookshelf from underneath, Mark, George, Will and Jack ran forward to help balance the bookshelf if it swayed, I knew John would manage. I pressed myself against the side of the staircase and out of John's way as the bookshelf was raised high off the floor and the hit men rounded the corner, the others backed off as I yelled.

"NOW!"

And John threw the wooden bookshelf at the assassins, they scattered wide eyed and horrified as the large wooden rectangle hurtled after them with incredible force. The bookshelf collided with two of the hit men and sent the others flying, Jack ran forward to check their pulse.

"They're just unconscious." Jack called back to us, we didn't do murder, not even low life, heartless hit men, hired by Baxter to murder the innocent. Though the remaining four assassins didn't seem to see it that way, furious at the attack on them a murderous looking hit man raised his right arm, in his had gripped tightly was a gun.

"JACK!" I shouted as he took aim at her. Will ran forward as the trigger was pulled and George launched a thick cookery book which collided with the bullet in mid air, without our ridiculously sharp senses timing that just right would have been near impossible, but thanks to our talented ancestors, George pulled it off.

The book was blown to pieces and shreds of paper drifted gracefully to the ground as Will pulled Jack away from the unconscious hit men, over at the other side of the room the other hit men were picking themselves off the floor and standing beside Jack's would be killer.

"The Kennedy's can wait, get them!" the first hit man shouted ferociously.

"Run!!!" Mark shouted as they drew their weapons, there was no argument there as we sprinted across the room, bullets and hit men hot in pursuit.

I span around and began shooting arrows at the on coming assassins hoping to slow them down, it worked for the most part, as they dodged arrows as well as firing in our direction and trying to avoid wooden debris, they lost speed. But I wasn't doing so well, stumbling a few times I span back round and sped up so as to catch up to the others. Will began hurling books across the room, not just to deflect bullets but to hurt hit men as well, one of our pursuers let out a satisfying 'ooft' sound as a book collided with his stomach. Finally we reached the kitchen, slamming the door behind me the others and I began franticly turning the room upside down in search of anything made of steel. We managed to dig up a stainless steel baking trays, steel cutlery, bread bins, tea, coffee and sugar pots and a large steel bin; the others looked at me, and now what? My mind worked; there was no way these single items would do us much good on their own, maybe we could combine them somehow.

"Fill the bin and bread bin up" I said still frowning in concentration "use anything and everything you can get your hands on, just nothing flammable. Hurry." I added as the hit men began shooting at the door, it wouldn't hold for long and wasn't putting up much of a barrier for the bullets.

Ducking away from the area around the door, hands over heads as a fresh round of bullets made Swiss cheese out of the door, we ransacked the once spotless marble and stainless steel kitchen. Soon we had filled the kitchen and bread bins with random assortments from the kitchen, pots, pans, cutlery, books, bits and bobs really.

"Alright, now what Robin?" Asked George and despite himself he was smiling, I remembered the other week, (gawd was that all it was?) when he had told me he liked it when I talked like the boss, I blushed before being shook back to reality by a bang on the door, just the one single bang, and the beeping. Oh shit!

"Get down!" I shouted, the others didn't need telling twice, we ran the length of the elongated kitchen and managed to take shelter behind a floor reaching breakfast bar, just as a colossal BOOM sounded from the other end of the kitchen and the door was blown off its hinges and smashing against the wall.

"We run." I said in answer to George's question as the others took their hands from over their ears.

We jumped to our feet, John picked up the large heavy bin and Will took the overflowing bread bin. Hurrying now as, as soon as the dust cleared the hit men would be though the door and brandishing weapons, I took one of the steel baking trays and stuck it in-between my jacket and my shirt, it wouldn't do much, but still. The others did the same and grabbed a cookery book for good measure, all of us-baring Will and John-now holding our bows, I carried on my orders.

"Will, John you two defend as we attack, we need to get back upstairs before they take advantage of our distraction." I said the others nodded just as the hit men bust threw what was the door.

We charged, Will and Jhon at the front angling our make shift shields to deflect the bullets while we aimed arrows over their heads, forcing the assassins backwards and out the way they had come. We were back in the entrance hall and the fight was really starting to pick up, fear now replaced with anger and adrenalin surging through our veins, we fought back, hard. Ping, went the bullets as they hit the steel bins, thankfully my hypothesis had truth, the steel coupled with the kitchen items inside it, was enough to deflect the bullets, for now. We were giving it our all and unfortunately so were they; I was paying too close attention to the first hit man, who was eyeing up the stairs eagerly trying to make a run for it, and was busy aiming an arrow so close to his head, you know to scare him a little, so I didn't see it coming. Bang, sounded the gun as it realised the bullet, slowly I span my head round so I was still sideways on (I see now that that probably save my life). Ping, went the silver missile as it skimmed across the steel baking tray protecting my chest, more out of shock than anything else, I fell backwards over a chunk of wooden debris, cutting my arm to boot.

"Robin!" George shouted fearing the worst he was instantly at my side, seeing the blood stains I had managed to get on my jacket as well as my arm, George went into hysterics. It was clear to me he was trying to decide weather to stay with me during my dying moments or make the SOB who shot me pay, in the end John made his choice for him.

"Argh!" John cried as he swung the heavy bin round clouting a hit man round the head, he collapsed on the floor, well that left three of them. Though the three remaining assassins certainly weren't happy, bullets were well and truly flying now, we had to back together to avoid being hit. George dragged me to the others as I tried to reassure him I was fine, well except the gash in my arm, but I'd live. I took a look at George's face, he was as white as a sheet beneath his mask and his eyes were wide with worry, as he pulled me up into his arms and held me tight, regardless of the warfare going on around us.

"Im alright." I repeated with a warm smile before a fresh shower of bullets ruined the moment, George let me go, albeit reluctantly, and assumed his fight stance, as did I.

"Robin?" Jack asked, I was thinking, ping, ping, went the bullets against the steel, our shields weren't going to last long. I aimed arrow after arrow at the space around the hit men, desperately trying to put them off.

"Robin?" John asked as he backed up some more at the force of the bullets, whoosh, and a bullet sped right past my head. Oh dear.

"Robin?" shouted a frightened voice from the top of (well the remainder of) the stairs, Claire Kennedy stood there, her startled sister desperately trying to pull her back into the bedroom. From behind Will, I could see the look on the first hit mans face, and I didn't like it one bit, a wide toothy grin spread across his face. I could see his twisted mind working behind the delighted expression, he now knew where the girls were, and he sprinted.

"Stop him!" I shouted and we took off as did the other assassin heading off after their leader, they were going to beat us there. The girls screamed and ran back into the bedroom slamming the door behind them, the others and I sprinted to the foot of the stairs but it was no use, the assassins were already half was to the top.

"Robin!" Mark shouted as took to the crumbling stairs two at a time, in his hand he held two test tubes filled with a grey substance, could it be? "I fixed my smoke screen formula" Mark said "but I don't know which one it is."

Panting as we ran, we could see the hit men up ahead; they were almost at the top.

"Take a guess!" I shouted back, he did throwing the test tube in his right hand ahead of him and to the ground by the three hit men's feet. Thick grey smoke rose up from the broken glass, the hit men stopped and coughed violently as the smog worsened.

"Good job Mark." I said patting him on the back before covering my mouth with my jacket and running into the thick smoke, inside its grey confines I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, but as the hit men coughed and spluttered we ran straight forward onto the landing. Reaching the bedroom door first George spluttered.

"It's us, let us in!"

The door swung open to reveal Stephanie, well im sure she would have known George's voice, im not jealous any more, just saying. The others dashed though and I was disheartened to see the smoke starting to clear as Mark and I made it onto the landing, the hit men, livid and sooty, were now in hot pursuit. In desperation more than a stroke of brilliance, I grabbed the test tube from Mark's left hand, and threw it behind me as it smashed two things happened simultaneously, we dived though the door, and a gun shot sounded.

George slammed the door behind us and I could hear the hit men shouting out in repulsion in the corridor, from my sprawled out position on the floor I span round to face the others, sighing in relief. Ouch, man that baking tray was digging into me. I blew my fringe of my face and was about to bark out orders about barricading the door, when I saw Mark still laying beside me clutching his leg as blood gushed onto the cream carpet.

"Mark!" We all shouted in unison, all outlaws rushed to Marks side desperate to help him.

"Argh" Mark said though gritted teeth "how bad is it doc?" he asked Jack who was inspecting his wound.

"You're not dead" she replied though she looked grim "but you need to get to hospital, and I doubt you'll be able to walk right now."

Cautiously John and Will lifted Mark to his feet; he looked sturdy enough until he was left to support his own weight when he winced in pain and toppled, John and Will grabbed him just in time. That was when the banging started again, the hit men having recovered from a thick coating for Mark's defective smoke screen, were really laying into the door.

"We need to barricade that door." I said.

"I'll take Mark." George said as John and Will looked around, taking his friend carefully from the others George gently lowered Mark to the ground where Jack could continue her inspection.

"You got any bandages?" she asked Stephanie, who shook her head, still pale.

"But I've got this." She replied ripping the curtains of her four poster bed, Jack graciously accepted the material and began to rip it into shreds, after that she took an unlabelled bottle from her jacket.

"This will hurt." She warned Mark, who though not as knowledgeable on the subject as Jack, had an extensive medical understanding.

"What is it?" he asked cautiously.

"Old family remedy" Jack replied, I got the impression that she was avoiding answering that question, as if Mark wouldn't allow her to use it if he knew what it was "it will clean you wound."

Jack uncapped the bottle and gently moved Mark's leg into place, and with a steady had tilted the bottle so that a single drop of liquid fell into the open hole in Mark's leg, he winced again. It must have hurt, because Mark had gritted his teeth and was digging into the carpet with his nails, the sizzling sound the liquid made as it touched Mark's skin confirmed my theory. Bang, bang, went the bullets on the now barricaded door they hadn't given up quite yet. John and Will returned to stand over Mark, watching the liquids progress with concealed discomfort, much like the rest of us, but I had to admit, the potion of Jack's was fast acting, the wound was already starting to heal.

"Robin?" Jack asked softly after tying the curtains around Mark's leg as substitute bandages, it took me a few moments to realise she was referring to the cut in my arm.

"Ermm, do you think it really needs it?" I asked, despite the wonders it was doing to Mark's leg, I wasn't desperate to try Jack's potion.

"I think so." Jack replied and before I knew what was happening, she had rolled up my sleeve above my bow and arrow mark and onto my shoulder, and was tilting the bottle of remedy onto my arm. I could see the reason for her hast to fix everyone up again, the hit men still hadn't eased up on the door and we were running out of time, but gawd did it hurt. I winced, slightly, the gasp escaped my lips before I could stop it, so I snapped my lips shut, desperate not to make more noises like that, I had to be strong. I had to admit though, after the initial pain and searing agony of the mixture starting its work, I felt better; it was definitely doing something, but before I could thank Jack the banging on the other side of the door stopped, we could only hope they didn't have anymore bombs.

"We need to get out of here" I said springing to my feet, there was only one thing we could do now, we were too tired and injured to carry on like this much longer, we had to run. "The window, we'll have to get onto the roof."

The others looked at me like I'd gone mad, did I seriously expect the Kennedy girls to be able to climb onto the roof, and what about Mark in his state? Fortunately (well not really) the assassins chose that moment in time to resume their attack on the door, loud, thunderous booms sounded out, twice as brutal and violent as before.

"Your mum doesn't happen to have an axe in the house does she?" Mark asked from his position on the floor. The sisters looked sheepish.

"Well yes, it's an antique." Stephanie said, oh you have got to be kidding me.

"Oh well then" Will ranted suddenly "it's alright then, at least I can say the axe I got chopped to death by was an antique!"

"It was dads; he collected all sorts of things from the same era." Claire added, though she obviously wasn't glad of the axes existence. I had to agree with Will though; it seemed to me like a poor choice on the part of Mr Kennedy, all things considered. He wasn't exactly making this easy for us was he?

"Madness." Will muttered as the door was butchered by the antique axe.

"We don't have time for this" I scolded "we need to get out of here."

"Robin's right" George agreed "it wont be long until they brake though that door." The two sisters looked fearfully towards the door.

"Someone will have to go up first then, or else we'll never get Mark and the Kennedy sisters up there." Jack said tidying her potion away.

"I'll go." John volunteered, so after flinging the bins onto the roof he climbed out the window and vanished from sight heading upwards. George and Will helped Mark to the window sill and into John's grasp; while Jack and I tried to convince the two sisters they would be quite safe in John's capable hands.

"He's strong, don't worry." I said after Claire questioned that part of the plan.

"That doesn't mean he won't drop us, I don't want my life in his hands, I don't trust him." Claire continued to argue.

"Really don't worry" Jack urged gently "he won't drop you we promise."

"Maybe Claire's right, maybe we should have someone we are familiar with giving us a lift." Stephanie said glancing in George's direction, I couldn't believe it, even after everything she had said earlier, she was still trying to dig her claws into him.

"I don't think so!" I said a bit too forcefully, but before I had the dreaded duty of explaining my strong objection to this idea, to a smug looking Jack, the hit men gave the axe a particularly vigorous swing and the silver blade became visible though the wood, they would get though soon. The sisters seemed to realise this too and were tripping over each other in effort to get to the window and away from the door, they weren't idiots, they understood the assassins were here for them.

Jack and I reached the window as Stephanie was being lifted onto the ledge my George and Will, each taking one of her hands, Jack's expression changed, she wasn't oblivious to the flirtatious ways of Stephanie either. Once both sisters were safely on the roof I insisted Jack go next, and then Will, George wasn't so easy to persuade.

"Come on Robin, your turn." George said offering me his had although he knew I didn't need it.

"You go first." I insisted as yet more chunks of the wooden door were hacked away, George eyes bore into mine, he looked about ready to fling me over his shoulder in the fireman's lift and climb out the window and onto the roof with me over his shoulder.

"Do you really think im going to…" he didn't get to finish another forceful swing of the axe removed a large chunk of wood and the assassins were visible though the door, and for the fist time that night, real fear took hold of me as I looked into the cold eyes of the assassin wielding the axe. He was going to kill us, and he was going to like it.

"George please" I begged "we don't have time for this" I said practically pushing him out of the window, well not pushing him out of the window exactly, that sounded too violent, I pushed him onto the ledge. He couldn't argue, he didn't have a choice, he was out and up on the roof before he knew what was happening, and with everyone now safe (ish) I strapped my bow over my back and clambered onto the windowsill and out the window.

I reached up for a hand to help me, my fingers closed around a ruff strong hand just as the door burst open and three assassins ran in. Swiftly I was pulled up to safety and into George's arms, the hit man cursed as he made a dive for my legs and caught nothing but air.

"That wasn't fair." George said hugging me to his chest, I pushed away, not that I didn't like being held safely in George's protective arms, though I'd never admit it aloud, George made me realise I wasn't as strong as I thought I was. I was vulnerable, but at the same time he made me feel safe, like it didn't matter I wasn't strong all the time, because he was here for me, whenever I needed it. Wow, was it possible to say all that without words? No I pushed away because I knew we weren't quite out of the woods yet.

Heavy grunting could be heard from below us, George and I risked a look over the edge to see the first assassin climbing out of the window.

"Get back!" George called out.

"They're coming up!" I shouted as everyone backed up and the two sisters hugged each other in terror

"Yeah, you had better be scared!" called a worn-out assassin, well we had broken his straight face, im-just-here-to-do-a-job attitude, he was reduced to Conner like sniping now, we had that effect on people.

"We grew out of being scared of washed up bullies the same time we grew out of being scared of the dark and the boogieman." I shouted back, taking off my bow and aiming an arrow where he would surely emerge.

"I am the boogieman!" he shouted back as he reached to rooftop, trying desperately to mess with out heads, Claire screamed, though I think it had more to do with his appearance than what he had said. He looked nothing short of a mad man, hair sticking out at odd angles, he was covered in soot, blood, grey gunk and wood splinters, his once pristine suit was torn and dirty, and he had removed his sunglasses and had a crazy look in his eye.

"I'll say so, you look a little ruff." I said making a crack at his appearance.

"Ha-ha, well your gunna look a little dead in a minuet." He laughed coldly and I swear I heard George growl beside me.

"Oh really." I said like his words hadn't bothered me in the slightest, which was when he pulled out yet another gun.

"Really." He replied, ok now I was bothered, I raised my bow, as did everyone else around me, I knew his bullet would get to me way before my or anyone else's arrow could get to him.

"You dare, you bloody well dare hurt her and I swear to god I'll make you pay!" George said his voice shaking with rage, I knew it would do us no good, I didn't stand a chance, I couldn't even bring my heart to flutter at George's words, it was too busy beating furiously in my chest, desperate to make up for the time it would lose.

"You've ruined my spotless reputation Hood, I NEVER mess up a job, I ALWAYS get my targets! But not tonight, so im going to do a job on you!" he said losing all sanity completely. My arrow was still aimed at his heart, I didn't want to kill him, but if I was going down, he was coming down with me, though I knew my friends wouldn't let him get away with it either.

"Baxter would have owed me big; when he finds out I killed the famous Robin Hood of Locksdale, he's got quite a price on your head you know" so I've heard "but right now it doesn't matter, I'd settle just for ending your life." He said and his finger moved onto the trigger, this was it, I was vaguely I was aware of George and the others shouting threats at the hit man, but it wasn't going to make any difference, he was going to kill me.

That was when the very last thing I expected to happen, happened, sirens sounded and flashing lights were visible on the roads leading to the manor, momentarily the hit man was distracted and I made the most of the situation. Before any of the others, or the assassin had the faintest idea what was happening I had shifted my aim from the hit mans cold, cold heart and to his hand, the gun few from his grasp and off of the roof. He let out an exasperated groan and I smiled, I knew what that ment, he didn't have anymore weapons.

George also seized the opportunity and rugby tackled my would be killer to the ground, I slowly lowered my bow as George wrestled with the assassin on the floor.

"You still got those curtain shreds?" I asked Jack, she nodded and she, Will and John ran forward to help George restrain the hit man, not that I think he really needed it.

I looked over the edge of the roof and wasn't surprised to see two figures darting across the grounds as the sirens grew closer, shakily I placed my hand on my still heaving chest and for the first time since the hit man had drawn the gun, I breathed.

Author note: hey, once again would love to know what you think, any criticisms and ideas for improvements are more than welcome. Im glad I finally managed to get this chapter uploaded, but thankfully with collage shut because of the snow (yay) I managed to get this chapter done. xxx


	24. Looking up?

Chapter twenty-four

The Southside

It had failed, Baxter's most expertly designed, well thought out and cunning plan to murder the Kennedy sisters, had failed, and why? Because of six teenagers running around in masquerade masks and it felt good. As I wandered down the streets of the Southside towards my house I felt invincible, on top of the world, we had won when at one point (especially there at the very end) I hadn't thought that possible.

Anyway, things were finally starting to look up, the Kennedy sisters didn't need constant supervision anymore, although two of the assassins had fled as soon as they heard the sirens, obviously they didn't have the all for one and one for all policy we had. The three unconscious hit men and the lunatic assassin we had tied up on the roof were apprehended by the police, who it turned out had been summoned by worried and wealthy neighbours complaining about the noise coming from the manor. Wow we must have been making some racket because the surrounding houses weren't exactly close by, each of the areas manors having sizeable grounds. It seemed that not all of Locksdale police department lived in Baxter's pocket, which I can assure you most did, and although it is an unwritten rule of ours never to trust the police, we were grateful they came when they did.

Although the arrest of these criminals didn't by any means liberate the sisters from Baxter's wrath, or make us look any better in the eyes of the public, I had learned from the others that some residents of the Southside had refused to accept our money parcels out of protest and after reading about the Kennedy murder in the Inquirer (which really ment something as they couldn't afford to be turning down money). So before we left the others and I had been trying concocted a solution, when Stephanie's suggested that, she and her sister go to The Locksdale Star (a no-nonsense, down to earth paper run in secret that prints the truths the Inquirer wont) and give them their story, the whole story, the girls were desperate to have their fathers real murderer named and shamed and our reputation cleared as a way of saying thank you.

Smiling I put my phone back in my pocket, I had just gotten off of the phone with Mark, who had stayed behind with the sisters at our insistence, amongst the flashing lights there was an ambulance, and Mark really needed to get to the hospital. We helped him spin some story about why he was here in the first place, something about him and Stephanie having secret rendezvous, which I'll be honest she didn't look too happy about though neither did Mark, and simply being caught up in all the madness. He had phoned to say he wasn't appreciating all the questions he was getting from the police, apparently they didn't believe that a seventeen year old from the Southside would be having secret meetings with a dead businessman's daughter, he was very offended. He had had to hang up mid rant though, because he was going to have the bullet removed, ouch.

So like I said, things were looking up, especially if what Stephanie had said earlier that night was to be believed. Elated by our victory, the fulfilment of Kennedy's dying wish and the prospect of a loving relationship with George, I let myself into our farm house, completely unaware that I was being followed. Silently I tiptoed across the entrance hall and stood at the bottom of the stairs, hard to believe that earlier that night I had been standing here, being ribbed by my parents about joy ridding in a coal executives stolen car (I still had to talk to them about that tomorrow) I had been completely unaware of what was to come. I took to the stairs cautiously, conscious of how the old farm house stairs creaked noisily; I didn't want to wake the whole house and have to face all their questions. I was soon in my bedroom and opening my window as the night was warm and sticky, I then quietly trekked into the bathroom I shared with the rest of my family (inconveniently located in-between Joey's room and my parents) and tried to remove as much soot, gunk and blood from my skin as possible, but with the tap running at a trickle so as not to wake everyone else, it was a difficult job. Giving up as a wave of tiredness hit me; I threw on my pyjama bottoms and a T shirt before heading back to my room, wow I was so sleepy, I guess preventing two murders will do that to you. I'd clean myself up properly tomorrow, before I spoke with my parents, well I would when I surfaced tomorrow, and let me tell you, I wasn't planning on surfacing before noon, thank heavens it would be Saturday and I wouldn't have work. Actually it was probably Saturday already, I didn't know what time it was precisely, I just knew it was late, I was too tired to bring myself to look at my clock, so I collapsed under my bed sheets intending to get some much needed sleep. Unfortunately things just aren't that simple for me, and the day had one more surprise for me.

I was just about to settle down in my sheets and drift off when I saw it, a figure standing in the corner of my room, I looked at my window cautiously, my curtains were blowing in the late night breeze coming though the open window, shoot. I roused myself out of my sleepy state and readied myself for the intruder, oh as if I needed this right now, I was too tired! But I'd be damned if some guy snuck though my window in the middle of the night and got the better of me. I looked back at the corner but the figure had vanished, maybe it was just my imagination, I had had a stressful day after all, maybe hallucinations were a by product of stress. I was just getting used to the idea of the whole thing being a hallucination when I felt someone else's weight at the bottom of my bed, no hallucination could do that. Quickly I flicked on my bedside lamp and sprang up to face the intruder, I froze in shock as I realised who it was, no way, he was the last person I needed right now. Taking advantage of my obvious surprise my intruder leapt forward and pinned me to the bed.

"Expecting someone else?" Adam whispered in my ear, actually yes, I had been toying with the hopeful idea that it had been George hiding in the shadows of my bedroom and that when he reviled himself would take me in his arms and kiss me passionately. No this DEFINETLY wasn't George.

"Get off me!" I hissed back, I didn't want my family waking up and walking in on this. Adam sat up slightly, though still not removing his weight from my body; he pulled his head up so that he could look down on me, smiling cruelly.

"You're not exactly in any position to be making demands." He said, as if his words could scare me, I couldn't take Adam seriously anyway, especially since I wasn't in the mood for his games tonight, I wasn't ever in the mood for him really, but still.

"Look Adam, it doesn't matter what position im in, I could kick your ass with both hands tied behind my back, so get off." I replied, getting annoyed with him.

"Oh I know you could." he gave me a strange look, and began taking in my appearance, he looked me up and down in my bed clothes and a satisfied grin spread across his face, oh I didn't want him looking at me like that, it made my skin crawl. I raised a hand to slap him (something I should have done a long time ago) but in my groggily state it did me little good, and he caught my hand with his and pinned my arms to the bed, he lent in closer.

"What's with you!?" I asked repulsed by him.

"What's wrong, I don't have blond hair, blue eyes and a wealthy father so you're not interested in me anymore?" he asked laughing maliciously.

"Jealous much?" I asked struggling; I wasn't giving up without a fight.

"A little" he admitted with a grin "but don't worry soon I wont have any reason to be jealous." I stopped struggling, why didn't that sound good?

"What do you mean?" I asked; please let it not be what I though it was.

"Let's just say Peter Perfects going to going to run out of luck pretty soon." He started laughing again, and I struggled furiously.

"You dare do anything to him! George has nothing to do with this!" I warned, I wasn't going to let him hurt George, I wasn't.

"He has everything to do with this" Adam said punctuating his words by getting closer to my face, I cringed away from him nauseated "that's how blackmail works."

"Blackmail?" I asked as Adams body crushed my own.

"You got it, I've finally got everything I need, im all set to go." He replied.

"You can't blackmail George; he'll never let you get away with that, or this for that matter." I replied forcefully.

"Oh he's not the one im blackmailing." He replied.

"Me?" I asked at the look he was giving me "ha! There's nothing you could possibly know that would make me give in to blackmail!" I was confident in that.

"Oh I think there is, you see I've been doing my homework, a bit of research, and I've found out some pretty interesting stuff. You see, I know a lot more than you give me credit for, after the incident in your back garden the other week, you remember it you threw pegs at me as you chased me past Baxter, anyway, I could tell something was different about you, so I followed you around abit. Well, what I found didn't half take me by surprise; I figured it out a little while before your boyfriend did who you really were, that you were the famous Robin Hood. So naturally I was annoyed you hadn't told me about this, so…" I interrupted his explanation.

"You called the Inquirer." I cut in, furious, he had been following me and he had found out my secret, and he had felt betrayed! He had no right to, I was nothing to him!

"Yes, I told them that Robin Hood was in fact a young girl, I didn't tell them who you were of course. So anyway the day after the article was printed I got a call from Mr Baxter, he asked me how I'd found all of that out and if I would be interested in taking on an assignment for him, I asked what assignment that would be, it turned out Mr Baxter had some suspensions about where his son was sneaking off to at nights and he wanted me to follow him around to confirm them. So I've been following Baxter around ever since, and I have to say Robin im shocked and a bit disappointed, I mean your practically throwing yourself at him" I was not! "Though I must say the scene in the lane, you know when you were cradling his head in your arms because you thought he was dead, that was very moving."

"You…" I was about to exclaim but Adam put his hand over my mouth before I could insult him.

"Im not finished yet" he said "where was I? oh right, so after all that I carried on following Baxter around, though I never managed to get anything incriminating on him, that was when Mr Baxter suggested I get an undercover job, he said his son was continually being sighted going in and out of Sherwood house in the Southside, he suggested I try and get a job there. Well of course I'd followed him there many a time and you too when I was tracking you so I knew what to expect, I knew I'd never get a job with you, you didn't trust me enough and were obviously still hurt about the end of our relationship" what was he on about, I was the one who ended things, who was this guy? He didn't even sound like the Adam I knew and lov… loathed.

"So when you carpenter friend shouted down about Jacubs wanting you to pass a message onto anyone wanting a job interview I was thrilled, this might just actually work. So Mr Baxter trained me up for the interview, told me exactly what to say and how to act" I thought back to the perfectly choreographed interview he had had, it made sense "you might have noticed I've lost my Southside accent, Mr Baxter told me that I wouldn't get anywhere in life talking like the rest of those working class lay abouts, so I changed, hope you like." He grinned down at me and I shook my head as violently as his hand would permit, this new Adam repulsed me twice as much as the old one, he was a cold, calculating, self made snob.

"I got the job, it had been expected, who in their right mind wouldn't have hired me, I had come across as the perfect employee. But I knew there was another reason, besides the money, why I wanted the job there, I would be closer to you. Of course that was before I had seen him, the other day, mothering you while you were ill, it made me sick, it was the first time since Baxter had employed me that I had regretted the choice, I had to sit and watch that! The only thing I could do to stop myself from going mad was to keep telling myself he would pay for it soon enough, I would have my revenge, so when you passed out while out delivering money, and he was holding you like I wanted to be doing, I took a photo of you both, but you saw me and sent your men to check it out, I had to run. It didn't matter though, the Inquirer got the photo and they made up a pretty good story to go with it, which made me feel better because I knew he was suffering."

I couldn't sit here listening to this, all these so called feeling Adam had for me, it couldn't be true, I knew it wasn't. I felt ill, why wouldn't he just shut up, I started to struggle again.

"Humm" he grinned "don't you want to hear the rest of the story? I'll carry on anyway, so you see all this was fine and good but I still didn't have anything to give Mr Baxter, I hadn't been able to find anything incrementing about his son so I stated to follow you again, more out of boredom really, I liked following you. And then there was the whole thing in the café" he smiled at the memory, I didn't I struggled some more "well you know what happened there. I have to say though, what really pissed me off was when he took you to Marian's bay, I mean his parents got engaged there for god sake!" really? "And there you both were sat on that rug when he was kissing your hand and I had to do something…" that was it, I bit his hand and as he drew it away calling out in pain I snapped.

"That was you!" he had ruined a perfectly nice moment between George and me.

"Of course, it was me who told the police where do find you as well, I wasn't going to let him get away with that." He replied rubbing his hand.

"Adam!" I snapped exasperated "im not your girlfriend I don't, nor did I ever, belong to you! You don't get a say in who I spend time with, who im aloud to see and what I do! I can't believe you did all that stuff, but honestly what did I expect from you? Get out of here now!"

"Now you see that's where your wrong" he said still holding down one of my arms he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of photo paper "I think you'll find I do have a say in what you do, that is if you don't want your precious George to get what's coming to him!" he unfolded the sheet of paper to reveal a photograph, it had been taken tonight at Harrington Close, it showed George lifting his mask to his face outside the manors gates, there was no denying it was George, it was the perfect picture.

"I've recently become very interested in photography Robin, did you know that? Mr Baxter has even paid for me my own developing lab at home; it sure comes in handy as well." I was staring daggers at him, my chest heaving in pure outrage it was as if I had just ran a mile, I hated him so much, pure loathing raged though me and I wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug grin off of his face.

"This will never work you know" I warned "and besides I know you, you don't have the guts to give that to Baxter!"

"Wanna bet?" he asked leaning in closer to me "you seem to forget there's a lot you don't know about me Robin, but you see I know you. I know the kind of person you are, caring, considerate, loyal, your foolish though, its because you have these traits that I am able to do this too you, its because you care so much that I can hold this against you. I know you won't let Mr Baxter find out about George, I know you'll do anything to keep him safe, the way you yelled at me earlier when I told you I wouldn't have anything to be jealous over soon, you just proved me right. You care about him too much to let me hurt him, even if that means doing anything I ask."

"I won't be bullied into being your slave, your bluffing; you wouldn't ever do anything like that!" I said though I knew this was a battle I was losing, he had me, and I hated that.

"Ah but do you really want to risk it? Personally I've been wondering what Mr Baxter will do to the oh so perfect George when he finds out, something terrible im sure, betrayal is always ten times worse when its done by a family member and to be honest I don't think Mr Baxter will go easy on him even if he is his son. Ha, it's probably a good thing capital punishment it illegal in this country, well I don't know that doesn't mean he cant do it on the sly though does it." Adam mused and my blood, which had been boiling over before, ran cold in my veins, Baxter would not show any leniency to George just because he was his son, betrayal was betrayal in his eyes and George would have to pay the ultimate price.

"Fine!" I spat, giving in pained me but Adam was right, I couldn't let him show Baxter that photo, I cared too much about George.

"Good" Adam smiled in satisfaction "Mark my words Robin, that hear of your will be the death of you." he laughed cruelly, didn't I just know it.

"What do you want from me anyway?" I asked physically unable to look at him, he made me sick.

"Oh you'll find out soon enough." He said roughly grabbing my cheeks and spinning my head to face him, he leaned in close to kiss me (eeeke on the lips, gip!) I turned my head away so he only got me cheek, his lips were cold and wet and sent my body temperature plummeting when they touched me, how could I have ever found this guy attractive? "In time." He said sitting up and getting to his feet, I gave him a look of pure hatred as he crossed the room.

"I hate you!" I spat venomously, he just laughed and was half way out the window before he turned back round to add.

"Oh and Robin, in case you hadn't already guessed, keep this between just us alright? Or Mr Baxter will be receiving that perticuly interesting photo regardless." I just stared at him, the look of revulsion never wavering from my face; this guy had ruined my life, not once but twice. "Good bye Robin." He said hopping out of the window, and as I was left alone in my suddenly freezing bedroom as a sense of hopelessness and anguish settled around me like a snow blanket. I couldn't see another way out of this one, I was going to have to give in, I was going to have to do (gulp) whatever he asked me to. Oh what had I been saying about things looking up?

The end

Author note: that's it, the last chapter in Robin Hood: Out cast, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story across all three of the sites I write for, you know who you are, so thank you. The votes are in for my poll, and with the unanimous vote Robin Hood: Out of time is the next story I will be writing so please keep an eye out for it, now that that poll has been removed from my profile my which character do you like best poll is back on, thank you once again xxxx


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